The city of Minneapolis recently approved a plan to conduct regular compliance checks of local liquor outlets, after a survey showed that 46 percent of bars and 36 percent of retailers sold alcohol to minors. Cooperation between the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support (MDHFS) and community-based prevention groups was key to the measure's passage.A few years back, prevention leaders in and around Minneapolis began to recognize that easy access to alcohol was a prime contributor in the city's youth substance abuse problems. In order to raise community awareness, the local Community Prevention Coalition brought in national experts like Laurie Lieber, Jim Mosher and Makani Themba to discuss possible solutions, including random spot-checks of alcohol outlets using young purchasers to determine if retailers are demanding identification as required by law.
In the fall of 1997, the MDHFS used its own money plus mini-grant funding from the Minnesota Join Together Coalition for a study on youth alcohol access in Minneapolis. The "Turning Off the Tap to Teens" study included research-oriented compliance checks, youth focus groups to determine how kids were getting access to alcohol, adult focus groups to gauge support for policies to combat underage alcohol access, and an attempt to quantify the financial cost to the city of underage drinking.
Armed with data showing a poor record of compliance by local bars, restaurants and liquor stores, coupled with a report showing that underage drinking costs the city $1 million a year, the MDHFS proposed to the City Council that the city conduct random compliance checks of 100 alcohol retailers by October 1998, and eventually establish a program to spot-check all 580 outlets in the city. The latter, the agency noted, would cost only $56,000 annually. The MDHFS also called for mandatory server training for all alcohol retailer staff; increased accountability for youths found in possession of alcohol; support for state-level legislation to reduce youth alcohol access; and projects that focus on the role and attitudes of adults in providing alcohol to minors.
Jaime L. Martinez, a community health specialist for the Hennepin County Community Health Department, tells Join Together that despite the compelling statistical information, the City Council initially was reluctant to support to MDHFS proposal. "The alcohol industry was really upset with the study and challenged the data, and the city found itself in a dilemma trying to balance public health and business interests in the community," said Martinez.
However, at three critical points -- when the MDHFS was presenting its data to the City Council's Public Safety and Regulatory Services Committee, when Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton called a press conference to announce the MDHFSA findings, and when the Minneapolis Star-Tribune published a favorable editorial -- community-based groups were busy mobilizing supporters of the proposed youth alcohol laws. The Community Prevention Coalition wrote letters to committee members, and the MDHFS recruited residents to visit with council members. Martinez said the MDHFS "really believed in this issue. They saw that the major health problems facing the community were tobacco, diet, and alcohol, and they felt that having an impact on underage drinking would be a good, population-level approach."
Community prevention leaders also were able to tap into a network of about 300 people who had been recruited over the prior three years because of their stated willingness to write, call and testify on substance abuse-related matters, said Martinez. The network arose after the alcoholic beverage industry launched an effort to preempt local alcohol laws and community groups found themselves confronted by high-powered lobbyists, Martinez said. "Legislators told us that if they heard from one person, in their mind that represented a whole chunk of voters," he explained.
Faced with the combination of research and popular support, the City Council voted to approve the compliance-check program and -- to address concerns about "social providers" raised by the alcohol industry and council members -- a "don't provide" campaign that focuses on the role of parents and adults in preventing underage drinking, said Martinez. Furthermore, the City Council has proposed raising the price of liquor licenses in order to pay for the spot-check program. Predictably, the alcohol industry is fighting that, saying the higher fees will make Minneapolis liquor stores uncompetitive.
Besides keeping a watchful eye over their victories in Minneapolis, local prevention activists have set their sights on presenting similar legislation in neighboring St. Paul.
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE: