This is a rather long entry but I ran across a letter to the editor recently from a lady in Waukesha that really hit home with me.
Wisconsin Dells Youth Futures has never been abolishionist--we support the LEGAL and RESPONSIBLE use of alcohol. The Dells is a tourist destination. For most of its life it's been a FAMILY tourist destination. Please read the comments in this letter to the editor, and think about how you feel about them. Ask yourself, "What part does and should alcohol play in the Dells ethos?"
***************Letter to the Editor************************************
The string of recent local tragedies involving intoxicated driving-related traffic fatalities in Oconomowoc, Racine and Green Bay is receiving a great deal of public outcry demanding criminal justice solutions to stop such tragedies from occurring. And while there should indeed be a great public outcry saying "ENOUGH!" I think it is imperative that our legislators and other decision-makers look at this issue from another perspective that has not gotten the same amount of media coverage and public response.
As a professional who has worked in the field of substance abuse for over 25 years, I recently came alarmingly close to another tragic situation in my personal life related to drinking when I was recently summoned to Froedert Hospital's ER at 1:00 am to deal with the near alcohol poisoning of my own child resulting from a night of underage drinking at a local party. That personal crisis brought it frighteningly close to home, that if a young person who has grown up with a lifetime of information about alcohol use and the consequences coupled with constant examples of low-risk alcohol consumption behaviors, could make such high-risk drinking decisions, then there must be something more that is missing on a community-level, because individual level prevention simply wasn't sufficient here either.
So I'd like to share some comments from Claudia Roska, Executive Director of the Addiction Resource Council, Inc. in an article from the Council's latest newsletter, The Advocate that sheds a different light on this issue:
"In early May, I attended a policy briefing in Madison at the Capitol Building sponsored by the Evidence-Based Health Policy Project entitled "Sobering News: How We Can Reduce Wisconsin's Top-Ranked Drinking Problem". The message centered on evidence providing documentation that alcohol dependence, a treatable disease, is perhaps the least of our problems when it comes to alcohol use. Paul Moberg, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Population Health Institute and a senior scientist in the Department of Population Health Sciences, UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Richard L. Brown, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine, UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and Carolyn Heinrich, Ph.D., Professor of Public Affairs and Associate Director of Research and Training at the Institute for Research on Poverty, UW-Madison, each brought their expertise to the table adding dimensions of policy-related population-level strategies to reduce problems related to alcohol use.
The policy briefing, although well attended by many of us working in the field of alcohol and other drug services, was only sparsely attended by our legislators - an audience sorrowfully missed and an audience that missed a spot-on message. Reading into the message it simply stated that we can watch our children grow up in an atmosphere that accepts heavy drinking as normal and suffer the consequences both human and monetary caused by underage drinking: traffic crashes, personal injury, alcohol-related disease, and the uninterrupted progression toward alcohol dependence. Or, we can implement population level evidence-based interventions that include reducing the attractiveness of alcohol use, integrating screening, brief intervention and referral into primary care medicine, and promoting policy that would ensure early access to intervention and treatment including newly developed pharmaceutical care.
It really is time we stop picking up the pieces. We do not have to wait for another headline telling of a tragic alcohol- or drug-related death on the road, another young life lost to alcohol poisoning, or the deep-pocket health care costs of unabated heavy drinking and alcohol dependence."
If we as a community are truly serious about reducing the health and impairment problems that result from the epidemic proportioned high-risk drinking behavior in Wisconsin, not to mention the growing concern related to prescription drug abuse, then it is time to invest our resources in proven strategies. While punishment and criminal justice consequences are indeed appropriate and needed as a response to breaking the law, we can't afford to invest the majority of our resources in interventions that happen after high-risk behavior has occurred. We must invest in proven prevention solutions to community alcohol problems.
Imagine our communities free of the problems like these recent tragedies that result from the irresponsible sale, promotion and consumption of alcohol. We can realize this vision. But getting there means creating a shift in how Wisconsin communities approach alcohol problems. It is time to shift from criminal justice solutions. Communities must take shared responsibility for creating conditions that support positive choices about alcohol!
- Carol Hanneman-Garuz, Waukesha