Lakeland Area Community Meetings

            This was an excellent meeting! We had great attendance from across the area- 95 people including 18 youth! This meeting was one of hundreds of meetings held across America this week on the issue of underage drinking (UAD). Our purpose for this meeting was to inform the public about the impact of UAD from many perspectives. SuAnne Vannatter did an excellent job of facilitating the evening and our guest speakers were really informative and empowering!
            We began with the viewing of a short film “This Place” which showed the devastating effects we are all familiar with of UAD. It was uplifting as it showed how other communities, just like ours, have risen to the occasion to successfully make changes to reduce UAD.
            Next we had an excellent presentation on the teen brain and how it is affected by alcohol by Yvette Hittle (Koller Behavioral Health) and Rick Lodholtz (the Human Service Center). Research shows that alcohol significantly affects developing brains. Some of the most important changes in the brain occur between the ages of 10 and 20 years old. It was interesting to hear that brain research proves what a teen parent already knows that “Teens have to get the reward before they’re excited about it”.  The research also confirms that teens “get less pleasure from daily activities”.  Alcohol affects a teens “reward center’ portion of the brain and alters their need for self-preservation and makes them more compulsive. High risk behaviors in teens and increased risky behavior with alcohol are related.  Environment  can override biology so we can make a difference. If there is no parental involvement, caring individuals can  make a huge difference in the lives of children.
            Dr. Rick Brodhead, local emergency room doctor next gave a presentation from the healthcare perspective. Over the years, he said he has seen every tragedy we could imagine linked with alcohol. He had some really interesting statistics on use: 17% of ALL alcohol consumed in Wisconsin is by underage drinkers! He discussed the various kinds of alcohol-related issues people come into the ER with and reviewed the recent history of use, which while down from years ago, is still a real cost to our society: $1.2 billion in costs by one estimate.
            The next co-presenters were LdF Judge Alice Soulier and Vilas County Judge Neal Nielsen. Both Judges discussed the large number of alcohol related cases going through their courts- including UAD related cases. Judge Nielsen stated that about 85% of all of his cases are alcohol involved in some way.  There appears to be large sums of money going into the courts to pay fines but the fines don’t seem to be too effective in curbing or stopping the drinking offenses. We need to rethink how we deal with this issue if the current systems of fines are inconsequential to offenders. Both judges are very open to doing “something new” to combat the problem. Judge Nielsen pointed out that knowing what we now know about the teen brain (not fully developed), lowering the age to 17 for adult cases may not be the best legislation. We can use what we know to try and change policies, ordinances and laws that reflect realities in our society today.
            Finally, LdF Chief of Police Elliot Rising Sun gave a presentation on his perspective of UAD and how it is being handled by his department. He noted some environmental changes that we need to follow up with-including a willingness to work with local store owners to reduce the amount of alcohol being sold, or at least placing it differently in the stores and not advertising it so much. This has been a very effective strategy in other communities.  He would like to see more focus on counseling after a citation. There were some questions and a good discussion about how parents are treated by the law in UAD cases-some suggestions included that in LdF the Chippewa Housing Authority could sanction parents who provide alcohol to underage drinkers in their homes. Judge Nielsen said that he rarely, if ever, has adults brought before him that have provided alcohol to youth. Judge Soulier said that it happens in her court occasionally. The whole question of enforcement was brought up as well. His presentation brought out the most questions of the evening and it’s a debate we will continue into our future meetings.
            The most encouraging thing to say about these meetings is that we are building good momentum towards our goal of trying to change the norm of underage drinking. The research and all of the folks who work with underage drinkers couldn’t agree more and they will be willing to use their power and status in our communities to help us change polices, enforce or change laws, and enact strategies to reduce underage drinking in our community.
            To close out the meeting, a drawing was held for raffle prizes that everyone signed up for as they entered the meeting. Cathy Kurtyka won a $100 gas card (which is just wonderful-she is always driving youth around in the community and is just great!), Jordan Gahler and Gage Hockings each won $25 gift certificates from Pizza and Stuff. Congrats to our winners! 
            Thank you to all the presenters-you made a difference last night!
 
Next Community Meeting: We have had a number of folks ask if we could try changing the night that we have our meetings on-we have been stuck on Tuesdays and we’re willing to change so others can attend. So - the Next community Meeting will be held at the LdF Wellness Center on Wednesday May 7 at 5:30pm.