City police andthe Board of Liquor License Commissioners try to keep teenagers away from booze, but the city is not immune to the national trend of almost $62 billion in annual costs related to underage drinking, according to the July edition of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.
Maryland?s liquor law enforcement is traditionally strong, but problems in Baltimore escape the “under-funded and under-manned” city police, said James Copple, a policy analyst with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which produced the report.
Samuel T. Daniels, chief inspector of the Baltimore liquor board, disagreed.
“Sales to minors may not rank as high as murder, but I can?t think of anything the Baltimore City police could do any better than [what] we?re doing now,” he said.
Controlled buys generate about $180,000 in citations, Daniels said. “At any given time, the kid you?re selling alcohol to is in law enforcement.”
The Liquor Board is “clearly concerned” about underage drinking, he said, and “the problem is not under control, but it?s being managed.”
The Baltimore City Police did not respond to questions asked over the phone.
Ted Miller, the study?s author, said prevention money tends to focus on drugs more than alcohol. The nationwide tab includes costs related to car accidents, violence, risky sex, poisoning, property crime, injury, suicide and work loss.
“Underage drinkers are good business; they tend to drink about 4.3 drinks per drinker whereas the average is 2.9 for legal drinkers.” They consume 16 percent of alcohol sold, Miller said.
Miller said better age-checking technology, driving curfews and an increase in alcohol taxes are needed to curb underage drinking.
“Alcohol is such a part of our culture,” Copple said, “If kids think we?re going to give them a wink and a nod because it?s a right of passage, then we?re not goingto get anywhere.”
According to one survey, the threat of lawsuits deterred more parents from supplying alcohol for underage parties than the risk of death or injury to their child.
“It?s not so much a kid problem,” Copple said, “It?s the adult behavior giving them access to it,” Copple said.
“Underage drinking is a never ending battle because a new generation is dealing with it every year.”
