Teen drinking

Look around. Broken longneck bottles glinting in the sun and other remnants of last night's underage drinking party are probably still visible on the beaches dotting area rivers, coves and creeks.

With prom and graduation season behind them, area high school students are busy making plans for summer parties in Ocean City, and in homes where parents have taken a night or a weekend off, turned a blind eye - or sat down and joined in.

Galen Harig-Blaine's grieving parents, who recently accepted his posthumous diploma in his memory, hoped Galen's death on April 22 would be a wake-up call to the people who think teenage drinking is OK. Autopsy results showed the Broadneck High School senior's blood-alcohol level was over .30 - nearly four times the legal limit - after a night of drinking vodka, Southern Comfort and energy drinks with friends.

But apparently, not all students are paying heed.

Galen's death was followed on May 15 with an after-school party that resulted in two teenagers - a 17-year-old boy and girl - being hospitalized after they were discovered in a highly intoxicated state at a 7-Eleven on the Broadneck Peninsula.

"What kids don't understand is they have a lower Body Mass Index - BMI - than adults," said Dr. Amy Cowart, of Bay Crossing Family Medicine on College Parkway. "They metabolize alcohol at a slower rate. It stays in their system longer. They shouldn't be drinking."

She quoted from the December 1994 issue of European Journal of Pediatrics: "Severe toxicity from ethanol (alcohol) manifested as coma, occurs at lower blood alcohol concentrations in young teenagers than in adults."

One of many factors, she pointed out, is the role of the liver in processing alcohol.

Although liver size varies from person to person, she said, "Normally, the liver is smaller in females than in males. Women can't metabolize alcohol as quickly as men. Plus, teenagers are typically smaller than adults, so their livers, though functioning at an adult level, take longer to metabolize alcohol."

The teen brain

Her practice partner, Dr. Ramona Seidel, said: "The teen brain is still in the development process, particularly the frontal lobe. This area of the brain is responsible for language, impulse control and decision-making, among other functions. The effect alcohol has on the developing brain is more devastating than it would be on the adult brain. This effect is due to the brain's immaturity and the damaging effect of alcohol on the rapidly growing frontal cortex.

"Teen drinking is a complex problem: Teens are more likely to take on risky behavior which is a normal process for the age. If the risky behavior a teen chooses is alcohol use, the alcohol itself can further escalate risk-taking behavior by damaging that part of the brain responsible for impulse control and appropriate decision-making."

The problem isn't just with students at Broadneck. One recent Annapolis High School graduate, Winters Geimer, observed several girls "sobering up" in the bathroom at Le Fontaine Bleu in Glen Burnie during the prom. They had "found" bottles of liquor in the limousines they rented for the evening.

Problems also have been reported at Key School, an Annapolis private school. Underage students drank alcohol and smoked pot during a school-sanctioned trip to Costa Rica in February 2005. Seventeen of the 21 teens on the trip were later sanctioned for various infractions. Of them, five were expelled.

And on Feb. 24, 2006, Chesapeake High School's senior class was shattered by the death of two popular athletes in an accident many suspected was linked to drinking and driving.

Booze easy to get

In a series of e-mails and a phone conversation, the sole survivor of that crash, Beth Boudra, 18, who now lives in South Dakota, admitted she had been drinking the day of the accident.

"It's important to get the facts out there about teen drinking," she said.

With the legal drinking age in Maryland being 21, and liquor stores, restaurants and bars required to card all youthful purchasers, one might think it would be difficult for a teenager to obtain alcohol. Not so, Miss Boudra said.

"Getting a hold of it (alcohol) couldn't get much easier," said Miss Boudra. "It's not hard to find an older friend to buy, or a coworker or family member. A complete stranger may even do you a favor if you throw in something for them.

"Or, if you don't have the cash, you can grab some from your parents' stash. Not everyone keeps track of it. I even knew a guy who still had the key to the shed at the restaurant he used to work at and could unlock the shed and take as much alcohol as he liked."

Miss Boudra, who was not driving, was badly injured in the 2006 accident that claimed the lives of her boyfriend and a friend.

"When I went through the windshield, I was scalped," she said. There was "no tissue damage, but I do have a scar that goes all the way around my head. Didn't break anything, all I have is scars. Lots of them. And head trauma."

More than a year later, she is still dealing with the effects of the accident.

"You can't just put a Band-Aid on and say it will heal in time," she said.

Peer pressure

Carolyn Friedland knows what it's like to push the limits. A 2005 Broadneck graduate, she got to the edge before pulling back. After a year of college, she headed to Australia and is currently living in Sydney.

"Now that I'm living across the world, it's very easy for me to see," she wrote in an e-mail. "Looking back at my graduating class, the 'popular crowd' didn't do very much of anything in high school except drink."

Often, she wrote, kids don't plan on getting drunk, it's more a byproduct of trying to be a part of the "in crowd."

"Where could you get all your friends and potential friends in one room so you can have a good time, dance, get dressed up, show everyone how really insanely cool you are, and not be a 'dork?' A party!," she said.

"And how do you get your friends to think you're the best? You drink. Because that's what everyone else is doing."

It starts at home

Ida Walsch and Helen Reines have heard all this before. They work with young alcohol and drug abusers every day at Pathways, an Anne Arundel Medical Center substance abuse facility off Riva Road that has operated since 1992.

Pathways offers on-site counseling and in-patient detoxification programs. It also maintains a 24-hour phone line, seven days a week.

"By the time we see a child in here, they're addicted," said Ms. Reines. "They weren't just going to a party."

The two women feel the problem with teen drinking starts at home, with parents.

Ms. Reines, a registered nurse, urges parents to "know community norms and rules, school policies and procedures. Most parents don't know. Just being involved and knowing is the first step."

And "parents don't know where their kids are," added Ms. Walsch, a clinical team leader.

The two noted that kids drink the most between 2 and 6 p.m. - the time after they get out of school and before their parents get home from work.

"Teens will call home on their cell phones and say they're at so-and-so's place," Ms. Reines said. "You call that person's house and ask for the parents. Make sure parents are there."

To prevent any problems in her household, Ms. Walsch purchased a breath test machine for her home. When her teenagers went out for the evening, it was sitting in plain view when they returned.

"I was always up when they got in," she said. "I wasn't asleep. I was paying attention. They knew there would be consequences if they had been drinking."

One parent, Amy Jurass of Cape St. Claire, is aware of teen drinking, but has set firm rules in her household for her daughter, Erica, 16.

"We have zero tolerance policy about alcohol," Ms. Jurass said. "But, we have a good cop-bad cop back-up plan. If she ever needs a ride, she can call her dad for a ride."

"They know not to drink," said Valerie Jones of her two sons, Malcolm, 13, and MJ, 16.

Mrs. Jones, who lives near Sandy Point State Park, said it's important to talk to your children about the dangers of teenage drinking.

"I've also warned them about peer pressure," she said. "I say to them: 'If your friends are trying to peer pressure you into drinking, they're not your friends.' "

School's role

After the incident at the 7-Eleven, Broadneck High School Principal Lucinda Hudson heard from angry parents who felt the school had a responsibility to do something.

"In lots of ways, we do have a responsibility," she said. "We're a part of the community."

Despite that, the school is limited to the consequences it can mete out when an infraction occurs off school grounds, she said.

On school property is another matter, however. Consequences of every imaginable infraction are listed in the Student Handbook, which every student is required to sign every year.

"Athletes who violate the county schools' prohibition on drugs or alcohol on school property, or during a school event like a game, are removed from the school team," she said. "Two were removed from the football team this year."

But perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting students to help a friend in need, said Ms. Hudson, is helping them overcome the "stigma of being a 'narc' or a 'snitch.' "

"Knowing something but fearing ostracism for speaking out is a huge obstacle," she said. "Often, kids speak out at risk."

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