Aiming
to stop youth boozing
Town hall meeting. Participants
try to stop scourge of drinking.
Wednesday, March 29, 206 • BY LYNN OLANOFF •
The Express-Times
WHITE TWP. | Not long after Danny M.
turned 14, he was drinking alcohol daily.
Now 16, the Phillipsburg resident doesn't
drink anymore. But his life has change in other ways, too --
he lives in supervised housing because of crimes he
committed while drunk.
"I started stealing in order to get
something to drink," he said. "I lost two years of my
childhood because of drinking."
Danny was the only teen speaker at a town
hall meeting Tuesday about preventing teen drinking, but
he's certainly not the only Warren County teen drinking,
other speakers said.
"The onset of drinking has become younger
and younger," said Renae Buckenmeyer, an adolescent
counselor at Warren Hospital.
"Fifty percent of (my counseling) group
is eighth-graders," she said. "The only difference between
the kids I work with and the rest of the kids in the
community is these are the kids who got caught."
Hackettstown Patrolman Dave Garzon has
frequent run-ins with a 14-year-old girl who is abusing
alcohol.
"Last time I saw her was Tuesday, when
she jumped out of a car because she didn't want to be near
her mother," Garzon said. "I don't blame the mom -- I do
blame whoever's giving this little girl alcohol."
Washington Township officials recognized
a problem with teen drinking in their community and, last
year, passed an ordinance allowing police to issue fines to
teens caught drinking at house parties. In the year, the
ordinance was used to shut down one party where there were
50 teens, including one who had passed out, township
Patrolman Ron Pantuso said.
"It's used to control an animal house --
we don't want a keg party," township Mayor Dave Dempski
said.
Officials from Community Prevention
Resources of Warren County, who organized the town hall
meeting at the Warren County administration building, want
other local municipalities to adopt the same ordinance to
combat teen house parties. Alpha is the only other Warren
County municipality with such an ordinance.
Harmony Township resident Fran Pilch said
Tuesday she hopes her town adopts the ordinance.
"I've spoken with police and with these
parents (who allow teens to drink), and I don't see anything
changing," she said.
The meeting speakers encouraged parents
to communicate with police and other parents, as well as
their children.
Most teen alcohol abusers say, "'I could
have stopped if my parents only knew and stopped me,'" said
Christopher Goeke, a Community Prevention Resources program
coordinator.
Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by
e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com.
© 2006 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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