LIHU‘E — Did you know that a parent can be arrested for supplying a child under 21 with alcohol, or that a minor can be cited for even holding a bottle of booze? A group of 45 ninth and 10th
LIHU‘E — Did you know that a parent can be arrested for supplying a child under 21 with alcohol, or that a minor can be cited for even holding a bottle of booze?
A group of 45 ninth and 10th graders at Kaua‘i High School know, thanks to Larry Moises, a county liquor control investigator, and his Drunkbusters presentation, held in the Kaua‘i High library Monday.
Moises, who has been presenting the program to middle schools and high schools around the island for the last two years, has reached over 200 students in 93 presentations in every middle and high school on Kaua‘i, except Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, he said.
The latest group, as part of its health and guidance classes, learned the laws of the state and county, watched a video about the consequences of teen-age drinking, and even got to see how drinking effects a person’s coordination with the help of some special goggles.
Moises said the purpose of the presentation is to show law enforcement’s response to underage drinking.
“It’s probably just letting them know what the law is, and what the consequences can be,” said Moises of Drunkbusters’ purpose.
Those consequences were outlined in a video entitled “DUI — Dead in Five Seconds.”
Showing a few gory scenes of bloodstained drivers going to jail, it also interviewed the parents of a 19-year-old California man who was killed by a drunk driver. They also interviewed the driver, who was also a teenager at the time of the accident. He is now serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life.
“If you drink and drive around, chances are you” will end up in trouble or in the hospital, Moises said.
Armed with a stack of facts about underage drinking and its lethal effects, Moises broke down both the laws and the facts with a simple dialogue to get students to respond.
“I try to get them to interact,” said Moises, and few of the students caught on.
One question that prompted a lot of response was, “How many of you were asked by aunties, uncles or your parents to get one beer from the refrigerator?”
Most raised their hands.
But Moises said, that action is actually illegal, because of Hawaii Revised Statutes, 281-101.5, referred to as “prohibition.” It states that minors under 21 should have no contact with any alcohol, and anyone who helps them come into contact with alcohol could be arrested.
Moises said that often the liquor control officers run stings, checking whether adults will buy alcohol for minors outside Kaua‘i establishments that sell alcohol. Those who buy the beer get arrested, he said.
He also related that a minor who is drinking needs only register any blood-alcohol level to be arrested under zero-tolerance laws, as opposed to .08 BAC (blood-alcohol content) for adults. And drunk-driving laws have been changed — to include all drugs, even legal ones.
Those arrested for drunk driving are arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of intoxicants, and that might mean something like cough medicine that contains alcohol.
“Some of you will die if you do not change your ideas about alcohol,” he said. “For some people, one drink is all it takes” to impair judgment.
Funded by the county Liquor Control Commission and the state Department of Transportation as well as from a Safe-Communities grant, the Drunkbusters program is a model, where enforcement officers from Maui and the Big Island have flown to Kaua‘i to check out the presentation, Moises said.
Since the inception of the program, underage drunk-driving has actually decreased about 1 percent on the island, he said.
Still, 141 minors were arrested last year for drunk-driving.
“That’s 141 too many,” Moises said.
Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mailto:tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
