Working together to fight underage drinking

Sussex County - On August 24-26 in Baltimore, more than 1,500 health officials, law enforcers, prevention specialists, community members, researchers and teens gathered at the world’s largest underage-drinking-prevention conference, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The focus was on how to change the alcohol environment for young people. Some of the tactics discussed at the conference may seem fairly routine, such as cracking down on liquor stores that sell to minors and breaking up underage drinking parties. But the strategies behind these tactics are aimed at changing the widespread cultural acceptance of underage drinking by targeting the culture, or the environment, itself. From Sussex County five members of the Underage Drinking Task Force, which is part of the Sussex County Coalition for Healthy and Safe Families, a program of the Center for Prevention and Counseling, attended the conference. Their goal was to learn about new ideas and strategies which they can work on implementing in Sussex County. Working together, the Underage Drinking Task Force is planning on utilizing the information they learned in order to reduce youth use of alcohol in Sussex County. For more information, call (973) 383-4787.