First Lady Takes on Underage Drinking
Governor's wife says alcohol is too accessible for America's children
Tim Funk, The Charlotte Observer
April 21, 2004

WASHINGTON - N.C. first lady Mary Easley says alcohol has become the "No. 1 drug of choice" -- for America's kids.

On Tuesday, she and Hope Taft, the first lady of Ohio, joined forces with a federal agency to kick off "Too Smart to Start," an educational initiative designed to keep preteens -- boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 13 -- away from the bottle.

Right now, Easley said, alcohol "is so accessible. ... A lot of kids know someone who's 21 and will buy it for them. And a lot of others just use it at home."

Unless parents, schools and community groups reach out to preteens and steer them away from alcohol, Easley and others said Tuesday, many of these children could become problem drinkers before they graduate from high school.

SAMHSA -- the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration -- estimated in 2001 that 5.2 percent of America's kids, ages 12 through 17, were either alcohol dependent or had abused alcohol enough to let it affect their school attendance and other areas of life.

In North Carolina, the estimate was that 3.6 percent of kids this age were in trouble because of drinking; in South Carolina, the agency's estimate was 4.3 percent.

SAMHSA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has spent $3 million to develop community action kits. The goal: Use these materials to come up with ways to change a community's tolerance of underage drinking.

Part of what's needed, Easley said, is a better understanding of why many kids drink -- and why it's such a bad idea.

"Self-image is really fragile at this point in their lives," she said. "Kids that age will latch on to anything. They want to be popular and accepted. But things can get lethal when they add alcohol."

Drinking can lead to unprotected sex, school problems, even criminal behavior.

SAMHSA plans to work with doctors, substance abuse prevention groups, schools and community groups such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to "provide health messages that resonate with (kids) and with their parents," said SAMHSA administrator Charles Curie.

Easley has campaigned against underage drinking for more than two years.