"Health & Medical News"

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is working with a task force of high-school students and parents to place stickers on packages of beer, wine coolers and other alcoholic beverages warning against buying alcohol for minors, the Washington Post reported Sept. 13.

Stop-sign shaped stickers will be placed on products at 50 participating retailers in the Alexandria area. The “sticker shock” campaign is intended to prevent underage drinking.

“Our message is delay, delay, delay,” said Cate Alexander-Brennan, the task force’s chairwoman and mother of a T.C. Williams High School senior. “Delay the onset of drinking until the legal age and completely avoid the use of illegal drugs. There is no data to support that responsible drinking by teens is even possible given their level of maturity.”

Alexander-Brennan said many local parents still buy alcohol for their kids. “These are booze-sodden activities. These are parent-sponsored activities, and the parents are supplying the alcohol,” she said. “Many parents think there is no way to stop it, that there is nothing to do about teen drinking except condone it and try to manage it.”

“If parents see a sticker saying that providing alcohol for teens is against the law, maybe they will wake up,” said Amina Uwwais, a T.C. Williams junior. “And it will be a way to let store owners know they shouldn’t be selling to underage drinkers, because there will be repercussions.”

Alexander-Brennan also chided Alexandria schools for offering no prevention programs to students after ninth grade. “I don’t think this is all the schools’ responsibility — it’s a community responsibility — but the schools are an important part because the law requires kids to go to school,” she said. “That’s about the only place you know you’re going to find them.”

But Margaret Walsh, executive director of secondary programs for Alexandria public schools, said there is little time during the school day for adding substance-abuse programs; she said the topic is covered in mandatory health classes and a human growth and development class. “I don’t want to appear frustrated with the concern,” she said. “I just don’t think that we can require more of the kids during school time. The issue is not what they’re learning from 8 to 3:30; it’s what they’re doing beyond those times.”

Popularity: 7% [?]