State warns high school seniors about alcohol abuse

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2002 | 10:52 a.m.

The state is sending a sobering message to graduating high school seniors.

The state Attorney general's office has sent about 6,000 interactive CD-ROMS, which carry a crash course on the dangers of alcohol, to high school students in Nevada. The CD course -- Alcohol 101 -- represents an effort by the state to promote alcohol awareness to students bound for college.

"Our office was already monitoring tobacco sales," Chief Deputy Attorney General John Albrecht said. "People ask us why we weren't getting involved in alcohol use. This is just a thing where there is some synergy going on."

About 3,500 incoming freshmen at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, also received the course during the school's freshmen orientation program, Arlene Maurer, UNLV's coordinator of Substance Abuse Prevention, said.

About 1,200 colleges and universities across the country have received copies of the program, which includes a questionnaire that asks for the user's age, height, weight and gender.

A list of options -- "Drink to get wasted" and "I'm hoofin' it to avoid a DUI," for example -- is given to gauge the user's partying plans.

But will anyone listen? It's not likely, said Larry Ashley, a visiting professor at UNLV who specializes in substance abuse.

"Knowledge does not always translate into behavior," Ashley said. "You get into a college campus and you get caught up in the swing of things. All those good intentions go down the tubes."

The CD has proven effective in altering people's drinking habits, according to an executive of the group that designed the program.

Ralph Blackman, chief executive of The Century Council, a nonprofit organization affiliated with alcohol producers, said the group is paying the approximately $5,000 it costs to distribute the program in Nevada.

"We know that in pre- and post-setting trials, it had a positive effect on kids' intentions to drink and the amount that they drank," Blackman said.

Nevadans younger than 21 drink at a higher rate than their peers in other states, according to a 2001-2002 report gathered by a governor's advisory commission.

For example, in 1999, 53 percent of minors in Nevada surveyed by the commission drank alcohol, compared with 50 percent nationally, said the report by Nevada's Commission on Substance Abuse, Education, Prevention, Enforcement and Treatment.

About 35.6 reported binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks within a few hours; the national rate was 31.5 percent, according to the same report.

A local bar operator seemed to corroborate the report's findings.

"We confiscate anywhere between 20 to 25 fake IDs a week," said Felipe Coronel, general manager of Moose McGillycuddy's in Las Vegas. Coronel said he collects boxes of the IDs each year. His own program to combat underage drinking, paying the doorman for each confiscated card, costs him about $700 a month.

The attorney general's office says that no other state agency is going this far to prevent abuse, Albrecht said.

"I can't say that any one step is going to help do the job," Albrecht said. "But this gets parents talking to their kids at least."