Town Hall discourages underage drinking

The Maricopa, Ak-Chin, Stanfield and Hidden Valley (M.A.S.H.) Coalition against substance abuse held an underage drinking town hall at Maricopa Elementary School Sept. 24.

The Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club also participated.

Students, parents, law enforcement, Maricopa High School’s dean of students Brian Ewing and Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles discussed the reasoning behind the drinking age being 21, risk factors associated with consuming alcohol at a young age and the potential consequences.

There were informational tables set up from the police department and local substance abuse groups across the school cafeteria and the police distributed “drunk goggles” for kids to see the difference of walking when inebriated.

“There are several physical and developmental risks including brain development issues as well as accidents and issues with school achievement,” said Caitlyn Goldner, president of the Maricopa chapter of SADD. “We want to thank the panelists for coming out today to discuss these issues and inform us of what you are seeing.”

The SADD group presented a poster of Maricopa youth ages 10-18 who don’t drink or do drugs from to the Pinal County Attorney’s Office and County Attorney Voyles.

“I want to thank SADD for the hard work that they do and the presentation of this poster,” Voyles said. “This is something I strongly believe in, so it’s easy for me to donate RICO funds to resources like this.”

The meeting included a panel discussion between Voyles, Ewing, Maricopa Police Department officers and parent and MPD volunteer Maria Rosales.

“We have some of the toughest sentences and penalties in the nation for DUIs right here in Arizona,” Voyles said. “If you get caught drinking before the age of 21 you can actually lose your driver’s license and the ability to have a driver’s license before you are 21.”

“We had a recent case where a young high school was ejected from a car and was killed in an accident where the driver was drunk driving,” Voyles said. “We don’t want that. Nobody ever wants that; that is why we are so tough on drunk driving and underage drinking.”

Voyles said they typically identify underage minors who are drinking is in a public setting, either using false I.D. or signing a false name to officers on a ticket which is forgery and considered a class-four felony.***ADVERTISEMENT***

“If they haven’t been driving they are eligible for a diversion program where we teach and share our concerns with them about underage drinking,” Voyles said. “We will help them change that path that they are already going down of potential alcoholism, because if you start drinking at an early age you have a much higher rate of becoming an alcoholic.”

About a dozen community members attended the town hall.