The county of Kaua‘i will join a national effort to prevent underage drinking and increase awareness about its consequences by hosting a town hall meeting from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall. The
The county of Kaua‘i will join a national effort to prevent underage drinking and increase awareness about its consequences by hosting a town hall meeting from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall.
The gathering, like others to be held next week across the nation, aims to start a dialogue in the community.
The Kaua‘i Police Department will present statistics on underage drinking along with information about enforcement.
Virginia Beck, a clinical nurse practitioner at the West Kaua‘i Clinic in ‘Ele‘ele, will discuss the health risks of drinking and offer tips on how to share this with teens.
Finally, a youth panel will talk about the issue from a teen’s perspective.
There are an estimated 3.3 million teenagers in the U.S. who are alcoholics. In 2007, Surgeon General Kenneth P. Moritsugu issued a call to action to prevent underage drinking and focus national attention to the problem.
The Kaua‘i event is a collaboration with the federal Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Prevention of Underage Drinking, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the state Department of Health’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, the Hawai‘i Partnership to Prevent Underage Drinking, and the Hawai‘i National Guard, Counter-drug Support Program
