What can you do?

No matter who you are, there's something you can do to prevent underage drinking:

Parents:

• Educate yourself, your children, and others about the risks of underage drinking, and set clear and consistent expectations about not using alcohol before age 21
• Use the monitoring tips at www.maineparents.net - whenever possible, start these habits well before your children reach their teenage years
• Be careful about the messages you send about alcohol - use the modeling tips at www.maineparents.net

Youth:

• Take a stand and feel comfortable refusing alcohol, don't give in to peer pressure
• Be a good role model for younger siblings and others who look up to you
• Get involved in community efforts to reduce underage drinking - be part of the solution

Pediatricians and Other Health Care Providers:

• Educate your patients and their parents about the dangers of underage drinking
• Include screening for alcohol and other drug use in your standard practice when seeing teenagers
• Provide information to parents about prevention strategies, including the monitoring and modeling tips at www.maineparents.net

Schools:

• Implement evidence-based prevention substance abuse programs to educate students and their parents
• Identify and refer students using alcohol for appropriate interventions
• Consistently and fairly enforce school substance abuse policies

Law Enforcement:

• Adopt and implement a clear departmental underage drinking enforcement policy, like the Maine Chiefs of Police/OSA model policy at /dhhs/population-health/prevention/lawenforcement
• Aggressively investigate and prosecute adults who provide or sell alcohol to minors
• Partner with others in your community to ensure a comprehensive multi-faceted approach to underage drinking prevention that does not rely on enforcement alone to solve the problem

Alcohol Retailers:

• Set a goal of zero sales to minors and then establish effective management practices to achieve it
• Sign on to the Youth Empowerment and Policy Group's "Alcohol Retailer's Local Marketing Code of Conduct" ( https://www.neias.org/YEP/docs06.html )
• Participate in Project Sticker Shock to educate adults who buy alcohol about the furnishing laws ( /dhhs/population-health/prevention/youth/sticker.htm )

Other Community Members:

• Join a local coalition that is working on underage drinking prevention ( /dhhs/population-health/prevention/communitycontacts.htm )
• Offer public support for prevention and enforcement efforts; thank retailers who do a good job

Be aware of the messages you send to young people you interact with - the modeling tips for parents at www.maineparents.net apply to all adults.