Powell Township

Responsible drinking: the definition and the reality - Marquette Monthly No. 229 November 2006

Everyone has seen those billboard ads along the highway for an alcoholic beverage or watched a television commercial promoting it. At the bottom of these ads, we see the words "drink responsibly." We hear those words again and again, and most of us assume we know what they mean. But do we really?

The Greeks knew what responsible drinking was 2,500 years ago. One quote from an ancient Greek play said:
"For sensible men, I prepare only three kraters (drinks): one for health, which they drink first, the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home. The fourth is not mine anymore - it belongs to bad behavior; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness."

Is this how the majority of Americans perceive responsible drinking today? It is unlikely there are only three drinks being served to each person in bars on Friday or Saturday nights. And after those drinks are served, some of the patrons decide they want to go home, and since they do not have a designated driver, they get behind the wheel themselves and drive home. Once home, the same problems the Greeks had with six or more drinks, the fights, domestic violence and public disturbances occur, all too often.

The Greeks didn't have to worry about deaths related to drinking and driving, but unfortunately we live in the twenty-first century where deaths from drinking and driving happen frequently.

In Marquette County, there were forty-three motor vehicle fatalities from 2001 to 2005. Twenty of those deaths were alcohol-related. This means that alcohol was involved in forty-seven percent of all the motor vehicle deaths in Marquette County, which is higher than the State average.

Statistics like this sometimes seem cold and impersonal. We see numbers, not faces. We are not affected by what we are not connected to in some way. If someone told you, though, that one of those twenty people who lost their lives was a relative or friend, everything changes.

I know everything changes because I experienced it. In junior high school, my friends and I were oblivious to the world of drinking and driving. We would hear in classes that it was wrong to drink before you turned twenty-one and wrong to drink and drive.

We did not really learn this important lesson until one spring day we found out a classmate had been seriously hurt because she and two friends got in a car with a driver who had been drinking.

The driver was only in high school at the time and did not know how much drinking could affect his ability to drive. He was going way too fast in a car that was not equipped with proper seatbelts.

He drove off the road and my friend was thrown from the vehicle. She died a few days later in the hospital. The driver did not sustain any serious physical injuries, but he has to live with the fact that his drinking and driving caused the death of an innocent girl for the rest of his life, which I think is worse than any injury he may have sustained that night.

As a college student, I have seen individuals consume eight or nine drinks in a span of a few hours. This is not how all college students choose to approach drinking, but unfortunately, there are many who feel it is perfectly safe.

Some of those individuals then think it is safe to get behind the wheel and drive themselves and others home. Today, more than thirty-seven percent of teens, when asked, indicate that they themselves have been in a car with a driver who has been drinking.

Of course college students are known for their binge drinking. But adults should know better than to drink more alcoholic beverages than they can handle and when they have they should not drive. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. Marquette County has the State of Michigan's highest adult binging rate, with twenty-nine percent.

A 160-pound man is legally drunk at four drinks. His driving skills are significantly affected after only two drinks. For a 120-pound woman, two drinks will put her at the legal limit, and only one drink will affect her driving skills significantly. Every individual is different and will be affected differently, but this can go in both directions. One person may not be as impaired, but could be more affected.

One drink is equal to 1.25 ounces of eighty-proof liquor, twelve ounces of regular beer or five ounces of table wine. This means that a regular bottle or can of beer is one drink.

At some locations and events though, the beer is not served in bottles, it is served in cups. These cups often are larger than the twelve ounces that approximates one drink.

Jim Harrington of the Marquette County Health Department presents Powell Township clerk Diane Burns and trustee Darlene Turner with a certificate acknowledging Powell Township's acceptance of the CountyBoard of Health's 0-0-1-3 recommendation to help moderate alcohol consumption at community events.

The policy is know as "0-0-1-3." The numbers represent no alcohol for people younger than twenty-one, no driving under the influence of alcohol, one alcoholic beverage per hour, and no more than three alcoholic beverages at one event. Powell Township is the first municipality in the country to recommend the policy, which has been successfully tested on U.S. military bases.

"When you consider that alcohol abuse is America's number one youth drug problem, communities should support programs that assist in preventing problems" said Powell Township Clerk Diane Burns.

When someone enters the alcohol service area at one of these events, they will show their identification and get the wristband, Harrington said. Each time they purchase an alcoholic beverage, one tab will be taken, in an effort to reduce the abuse of alcohol.

"Lots of people talk about moderate drinking, but no one seems to agree on what moderate drinking really is," Harrington said. "This defines moderate drinking as one alcoholic beverage per hour and no more than three per event."

The Marquette County Sheriff's Office is responsible for the administration of these licenses for areas in the county that do not have their own law enforcement agency.

According to Sue Girard-Jackson, community safety coordinator, these temporary or "special" alcohol licenses have many of the same rules that apply to liquor licenses: they must not sell to minors, the area where alcohol is sold must be marked clearly and separated from the event by a rope or fence, and they must not sell alcohol to intoxicated people.

Girard-Jackson said the 0-0-1-3 program can go a long way in helping community events avoid problems such as having people leave the events intoxicated.

Paul Olsen from the Great Lakes Center for Youth Development believes that this policy has an important youth development aspect.

"Children watch adult behavior very closely," Olsen said. "They're looking for clues as to what is appropriate and what isn't. So, apart from safety concerns, many parents avoid community events where alcohol is served because they don't feel comfortable exposing their children to adults who are intoxicated in public.

"From this angle, we hope to see that 0-0-1-3 raises attendance at community events by reassuring parents that other adult attendees will behave responsibly."

This policy is not out to abolish drinking. It was developed to reduce binge drinking and help those who choose to go out and have a few drinks stay safe. It will remind those who drink that they need to slow down. It will help prevent intoxication, and make it safer for everyone involved.

If this policy can help save just one life, it is worth every minute spent implementing it. Who knows, the life it saves may be somebody you know and care about...or your own.

For details, visit www.upprevent.org.
- Shelby Nordheim