CARIBOU, Maine — A press conference was held on March 27, at the Caribou Courthouse where the topic of discussion revolved around underage drinking in Aroostook County.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Youth Access to Alcohol Pilot Project was introduced to The County in 2012, after the federal government’s decision to award four counties in the U.S. with the Underage Drinking, Adult Consequences Project. Other counties involved included Jefferson County, Ky; Greenville County, S.C.; and Cerro Gordo, Iowa.
Aroostook County’s Community Voices, a group dedicated to reducing underage access to alcohol, was awarded $328,000 in 2011, to participate in the innovative project. With the final stages of the “Underage Drinking. Adult Consequences” campaign over, officials from Aroostook County were looking for ways to build on the momentum gained from the original platform.
After two years of planning and data collecting, along with diligent efforts by local law enforcement, the federal demonstration project has reached a phase when results are being released. Community members are now able to gauge the effectiveness of the two-year process, when it comes to curbing the No. 1 drug-problem for County teens.
Aroostook County law enforcement, including a number of chiefs of police, and Caribou District Attorney Todd Collins, were in attendance at Thursday’s press conference to recapitulate the findings and release a progress report for the project. Community Voices Project Manager Michelle Plourde Chasse was also at the press conference, to discuss a number of steps taken to collect data on underage drinking, and reveal figures of this unique study, as well the outcome from new initiatives put forth by local law enforcement.
Plourde Chasse explained that according to the 2013 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey findings, past 30 day Aroostook high school student alcohol use has decreased from 34 percent in 2009 to 26.5 percent in 2013. The focus now will be to see the furnishing trends follow suit. Plourde Chasse explained these numbers were the result of surveys taken by seven County high schools and three institutions of higher education.
“Prior to the project, we knew that: 66 percent of teens reported that alcohol was easy to obtain; 85 percent believed a young person using alcohol would not get caught by law enforcement; and nearly 1,000 reported having ridden in a vehicle with someone who had been consuming alcohol,” said Plourde Chasse. “Therefore, the focus of combining partners from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, resources for increased law enforcement efforts, and to bring further awareness to the issue of underage drinking was wholeheartedly embraced.”
The second phase of the project involved making alcohol more difficult for youth to obtain, and increase the prosecution rate of adults who provided alcohol to youth. This step required a number of different techniques used by County law enforcement.
“Compliance checks are being routinely conducted across The County under the leadership of the Aroostook County Sheriffs Office. A District Task Force is coordinated by Chief Michael Gahagan of the Caribou Police Department and is meeting quarterly. Also, an anonymous electronic tip line is being implemented by County enforcement agencies,” said Plourde Chasse. “Community Voices and prevention partners are continuing efforts to increase youth and community awareness to the risks associated with youth alcohol use and initiatives to further decrease the behavior.”
In Aroostook County, alcohol violations doubled during the project period. It was the only one of the four pilot sites to display a decrease in students who reported driving after drinking in the past year. The seven high schools and three colleges involved in the project were the Community High School in Fort Kent, Van Buren High School, Presque Isle High School, Limestone High School, Hodgdon High School, Wisdom High School, UMPI, UMFK and NMCC.
“The project afforded Aroostook County the resources to target underage alcohol use and youth access to alcohol in a collaborative and cohesive fashion. It provided the opportunity for broad scale enforcement efforts and media and community opportunities to increase awareness to the issue,” added Chasse. “Ultimately, the Underage Drinking Adult Consequences Project and Aroostook County were a favorable union that proved we all have a role, and that in working together, and simultaneously on the issue, we can create change. This is how we (prevention and enforcement partners) are proceeding with continued and future efforts.”
The success of the project would depend on the accomplishment to reduce the number of underage drinkers and individuals killed or injured in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes.
“We’ve come a long way since I started in this work eight years ago, and much farther since the implementation of the national project. At this point, hands down, our greatest need is to get to the heart of the practice of providing alcohol to minors,” said Plourde Chasse.
