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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Underage Drinking Meeting Raises Awareness

Lack of awareness was the major concern among parents and children Thursday night as the Department of Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration held a meeting about underage drinking.

About 75 people gathered at Charlotte Amalie High School to hear five panelists discuss the effects of underage drinking on adolescents and the community. Band members and a handful of those who attended the meeting arrived early for a march from the hospital to the high school.

Due to the increase in reports involving underage drinking, Health officials felt that parents and students needed an opportunity to educate themselves.

“What do we expect when we give people rum right off the plane?” asked Maren Roebuck, a prevention coordinator for the department. “ Our youth doesn’t see alcohol as a drug when we idealize it.”

Janet Bennett, a midwife at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital, warned that underage drinking is severe and on the rise in the territory. She said that drinking while your brain is maturing can cause permanent damage.

CAHS teacher Andrea Ryan was concerned that teachers didn’t have materials to educate themselves and their students about these important issues.

Kezi Prentice, 15, wanted to know how her community could help with awareness. Panelists encouraged children present not to succumb to peer pressure, to avoid high-risk behavior and to work with her friends and community to spread the word about underage drinking.

V.I. Police Sergeant Rosalyn Jarvis noted that the Police Department feels responsible to help educate the public. The department has started handing out pamphlets, administering more field sobriety tests and doing undercover checks at stores and bars, she said.

Speakers agreed that the media is also a constant concern because of the often glamorous portrayal of alcohol in advertisements.

“TV ads are very appealing. None of the effects of alcohol are shown. People don’t get to look at what alcohol has done,” Bennett.

Panelists discussed at length the roots and effects of underage drinking, but they agreed that the damage alcohol causes is the most severe problem facing underage drinkers.

With a drinking age of 18 in the territory, those presents wondered why children still want to drink when they’re under age.

Considering that the problem might be cultural, narcotics counselor Franz Brady said that most locals first try alcohol when they’re children at Carnival. Having five different types of wine at church, said Dr. Vincent David, another panelist, doesn’t help either.

“There’s a reason why alcohol is a gateway drug. It’s so easy to get. Young people have too much access to it,” Brady said.

David noted that enforcing the law is critical in combating underage drinking, but he worried that conflicting legislation, like that of open container laws versus DUI laws, would cause problems.

It’s time we air out our dirty laundry, Brady said. “We need our children and our families to know if we have or had substance abuse problems to help their awareness. We’re in denial because we don’t want our lives to be disrupted.”

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