UNDERAGE DRINKING

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! Read more about what District Attorney Blodgett is doing to help curb Underage Drinking. Website Link Here Download Underage Drinking Fast Facts Brochure Here

This is the advice to adults from a seventeen-year-old girl who has made a decision not to drink alcohol as a minor. She is one of 10 young people from Essex County who are featured in my new underage drinking prevention program, Underage Drinking: Not Everyone is Doing It. From her perspective, she sees the damage that drinking does up close and urges adults to speak honestly to the children in their lives about all the consequences of drinking - not just drinking and driving. She is also an example that debunks the myth that all kids drink. The truth is - as the name of my new underage drinking prevention program suggests - fewer high school students in Massachusetts are drinking.

It is true that, for too many young people, alcohol does result in death. Alcohol kills young people at a significantly higher rate than all other illegal drugs combined. These deaths are caused not just by motor vehicle crashes, but also homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning and other accidents such as drowning or falling. This statistic should provide warning to those adults who, with all good intentions, collect car keys from minors in an effort to "keep them safe". The fact is there is no such thing as safe underage drinking. Here in Essex County, we have had numerous incidents where minors have suffered alcohol poisoning, been sexually assaulted and have died as a result of attending so-called "supervised" drinking parties.

But as the young people who were interviewed by my staff said - death is only a small part of the wreckage caused by underage drinking. Addiction, brain damage, drug use, crime victimization and poor school performance is the rest of the story.

Jonathan W. Blodgett
Essex District Attorney