Monday, December 2, 2024
In 2000, the Long Beach Medical Center created the Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking. Focused on reducing underage drinking and drug use, the nonprofit organization began partnering with the City of Long Beach, and its Police Department, in 2003, and when the medical center closed in 2013, the coalition began operating on its own, renamed Long Beach Aware.
At a City Council meeting on Nov. 6, the now state-funded group presented the Police Department with a check for over $16,000 to help with the city’s efforts to combat underage drinking. The check was part of a federal grant from the Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking, or STOP, Act.
“We’ve always funded extra police activities because it stems the tide of underage drinking,” Judi Vining, Long Beach Aware’s executive director, said. “It doesn’t eliminate it, but it makes it a little more difficult. That’s what you want to do.”
Vining’s organization presents the Police Department with a check each October, at the end of the fiscal year. The department keeps track of the time and money it devotes to efforts focused on underage drinking, including overtime expenditures, and each Long Beach Aware donation is a reimbursement of sorts.
“We have had this collaboration with Aware
for 20 years,” Acting Police Commissioner Richard DePalma said. “With this money, we can have more underage patrols. With these funds, the Police Department can conduct operations in order to keep alcohol out of the hands of people less than 21.”
The collaboration extends to Long Beach City Court as well. When underage drinkers are issued summonses by the police, they go to court, where they have a choice: They can pay a fine and plead guilty, or they can attend a class run by Long Beach Aware. There they learn about the dangers and potential repercussions of their illegal actions. They must also submit a two-page essay detailing what they learned, and how it applied to their specific situation.
“Our job as adults is to stop kids — their job is to try,” Vining said. “Their brains aren’t developed. They think they’re invulnerable. They don’t see the dangers, and they’re not supposed to. We’re supposed to teach them that.”
The Aware option, Vining explained, gives kids a chance to avoid having a criminal record for the rest of their lives because of one mistake. “This sends a message to the kids, to the community that Long Beach takes underage drinking seriously,” she said, “because there are major ramifications.”
Vining said that Long Beach had about 20 percent more incidents of underage drinking than the county and state averages, last time they surveyed in 2019. She also point out that there are no fewer than 90 places where alcohol can be purchased within Long Beach’s 3.5 square miles. That’s why helping the police with funding is so important.
“This has been very productive and insightful,” Vining said of the collaboration, adding, referring to young drinkers and substance abusers. “They sometimes never realized that what they did affected not only them, but affected this community that they were visiting or they’re a part of. We want this to be a healthy place for families and children.”
The STOP Act program aims to prevent and reduce alcohol use among those ages 12 to 20 in communities across the country by reducing opportunities for underage drinking, enhancing enforcement efforts and addressing penalties. Long Beach Aware’s “three-pronged approach” includes increased enforcement, limiting access and increasing education.
