MEDINA —
On the night before St. Patrick’s Day, a town hall meeting by the Genesee/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse presented sobering information about underage drinking to a 60-person-strong crowd of parents and students.
The meeting, held at First Presbyterian Church, highlighted what GCASA Orleans County Drug Free Communities Coordinator Chris Lewis called astounding — the high numbers of local students engaging in casual and binge drinking from sixth grade on.
According to the stats presented by Lewis in a PowerPoint presentation, in 2007 half of 12th-grade students, 30 percent of 10th-grade students and 5 percent of sixth-grade students anonymously admitted to drinking within the past month. Additionally, more than half of each group of the students who admitted drinking in the survey said they had consumed five or more drinks at one time.
Lewis, who said a new survey for the 2009-10 year of is forthcoming, believes the numbers are high but slowly dropping, as the 2005 survey’s result were higher and the current survey’s results are likely to be, as well. “We expect the underage drinking numbers to keep going down,” Lewis said. He attributes the drop to the efforts of the community. “Parents, the police and judges have all helped.”
Orleans County Judge James Punch spoke at the meeting about plans to add a separate juvenile drug court in Orleans County this summer. Punch said the new court would be in addition to the felony, family and county courts and would address substance abuse cases. Punch said he has seen a correlation between mental health issues and substance abuse.
Punch’s planned court would be similar to the courts found in larger counties and would require juvenile drug abusers to avoid
the boredom that leads to foolish crimes. “They’d be required to do more than go to school,” Punch said. “They’ll have to join a school group or sport or get a part-time job.”
Medina Police Chief Jose Avila presented what he described as, “the toughest law on drunk driving I’ve ever seen.” Leandra’s Law, which went into effect in November 2009, states that driving drunk or under the influence of drugs with a child under the age of 16 in the vehicle is a Class E felony and punishable with three years of jail time. The strict law is named for Leandra Rosado, who was killed at age 11 after being thrown from a vehicle in a drunken driving accident last October.
“Leandra’s Law will set some of the toughest DWI penalties in the nation,” Avila said. “It will provide law enforcement officials with the tools they need to prosecute DWI offenders.”
The meeting was not all law and order; a significant portion of the evening was spent discussing the ways parents and students could prevent substance abuse during the spring. The Drug Free Communities coalition maintains an underage drinking tipline, 343-1932, where callers concerned about substance abuse can be directed to law enforcement.
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