L’Observateur / May 9, 2000

Melissa Sanchez, daughter of Erith and Irv Sanchez, of Luling and a junior at Hahnville High School, recently attended the first-ever Louisiana Youth Summit To Prevent Underage Drinking, hosted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), in collaboration with the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

Jimmy Swaggart Conference Facility was the backdrop for this unprecedented coalition of Louisiana’s youth. High school students representing their respectivesenatorial districts convened in Baton Rouge for the summit. Throughout theevent, youth delegates were given a forum in which to explore the issues surrounding alcohol – the most commonly used drug among young people – and developed proposed solutions which were presented at a press conference at the State Capitol on May 1.

Although the minimum legal drinking age is 21 in our state, studies show that more than half of all junior and senior high school students drink monthly. Eight youngpeople a day die in alcohol-related crashes and 48.1 percent of all fatal and injurycrashes in Louisiana can be attributed to alcohol involvement.

The Youth Summit consisted of five general sessions, each focusing on a specific alcohol-related topic, as well as small discussion groups. Topics covered includedlegislation, alcohol accessibility, alcohol usage and impaired driving, peer pressure and parental roles, media images and enforcement policies to curtail alcohol use.

Policy makers, elected officials, researchers and community activists facilitated general sessions.

The Louisiana Youth Summit is one of many programs in MADD’s new youth focus, the Youth in Action movement. Since its inception, MADD has fought for tougherdrunk driving legislation and has provided assistance to victims of drunk driving crashes. MADD is committed to continuing these efforts and believes it can havean even greater impact on impaired driving and underage drinking by recruiting young people as partners in its new youth programs.

“We believe young people want to play an important role in helping establish new policies to change social norms about underage drinking and impaired driving, “said MADD national president, Millie Webb. “The State Youth Summit will help to producelong-term change in behavior and lead to a new generation of activists.”To find out more about the MADD State Youth Summit to Prevent Underage Drinking, contact Dortha Cummins at (225) 216-0910 or Jamie Barth at (225) 925-6846.

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