N.C. First Lady Seeks Head Start in Curbing Underage Drinking

Dale Neal, Asheville Citizen-Times

Underage drinking is more than a phase to be tolerated by adults — it is a public health crisis costing billions of dollars in damages and lost lives, North Carolina’s first lady Mary Easley said Tuesday.

“You know as well as I do that if you begin alcohol education in high school that’s too late,” Easley said at the N.C. Association of ABC Boards annual summer conference held at the Grove Park Inn.

“Middle school is not too early,” said Easley, who has been active in Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, an initiative of governors’ spouses across the nation.

At least four Western North Carolina counties with a higher percentage of alcohol-related crashes and deaths have been targeted among 18 counties in the state for a new initiative, Easley said.

Cherokee, Jackson, McDowell and Watauga counties can qualify for a share of $2.3 million annually to help combat alcohol-caused crashes, particularly among young drivers, said Michael Eisen of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

That initiative is just one of the many new programs Easley said are needed to combat the problem.

Local ABC boards oversaw $216 million in revenues from alcohol sales and returned $7 million to alcohol education, Easley said. She urged board members to commit more revenue resources to help prevent youngsters from drinking while their brains are still developing.

Young people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence and twice as likely to become full-blown alcoholics than those who start drinking at the legal age of 21, said Easley.

A 2005 survey by the Centers for Disease Control showed that 21 percent of North Carolina students had their first drink of alcohol, more than a few sips, before age 13.