Underage drinking is a serious issue and can result in risky behavior, car crashes, memory loss, sexual assault, alcohol poisoning, legal problems and death.
One way that GUIDE, Inc. (Gwinnett United in Drug Education) addresses underage drinking in our community is reducing teen access to retail alcohol by partnering with the Gwinnett County Police Department to conduct routine compliance check sweeps.
Compliance checks make sure that alcohol establishments and their employees are properly checking IDs of anyone who is buying and/or being served alcohol, preventing sales of alcohol to those under 21. When alcohol retailers are in compliance, it reduces access to alcohol and serves as a reminder to adults that providing alcohol to underage youth is illegal. Research shows that “shifting norms and reducing access to alcohol impacts the rates of high-risk drinking in addition to related problems among youth and adults” (Health Community Consortium, 2006).
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To conduct the compliance checks, youth under 21 serve as decoys and order an alcoholic drink at a restaurant or attempt to buy alcohol at a licensed store. In the past three months, April–June, 13 establishments were checked in Buford. The compliance rate during this time was 85%, which means that 2 out of 13 retailers sold alcohol to the underage decoy.
Thank you to ALL of the following businesses that practiced responsible alcohol sales and did NOT sell alcohol to the underage decoy:
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Chevron Food Mart, 2800 Hamilton Mill Rd, Buford
CVS Pharmacy #279, 2605 Hamilton Mill Rd, Buford
Hop-in/Shell Food Mart, 2625 Mall of Georgia Blvd, Buford
Kroger #494, 3300 Hamilton Mill Rd, Buford
Publix #596, 5885 Cumming Hwy, Buford
Red Lobster, 3230 Buford Drive, Buford
Rite Aid #11812, 3330 Hamilton Mill Rd, Buford
Suwanee Exxon, 4296 Old Suwanee Rd, Buford
Texaco Food Mart, 5905 Suwanee Dam Rd, Buford
TGI Friday’s, 1795 Mall of GA Blvd, Buford
Walmart Supercenter, 3250 Sardis Church Rd, Buford
It is their commitment to training of their employees and their policies that prevented the underage sales of alcohol.
We commend YOU. Keep up the great work!
GUIDE, Inc. (Gwinnett United in Drug Education) and Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human services collaborate with Gwinnett County Police Department in these prevention activities because we care about young people in our community and want to keep them safe and healthy.
GUIDE, Inc. is a substance abuse prevention agency serving Gwinnett County since 1986. To find out more about us, please connect with us at guidegti.wordpress.com.
References:
Health Community Consortium. (2006). An issue briefing: The Petaluma social host ordinance. Petaluma Coalition to Prevent Underage & High-Risk Drinking, 1(2). Retrieved from http://marylandcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SHO_Issue_Brief_71-28-06_final-3.pdf