Locals from all different areas of the Chapel Hill community are engaging in a fight against underage drinking, but there is less consensus on the extent of the problem and the best way to fight its upward trend.
Some Chapel Hill Town Council members have supported a statewide beer keg registration policy that would require merchants to track keg purchases, allowing law enforcement officials to prosecute those who supply alcohol to minors.
“This is a nationwide issue, pervasive through all of the community, not just college towns,” said council member Jim Ward, who first requested that keg registration be added to the council’s legislative requests in February.
Twenty-three other states and the District of Columbia now have similar registration policies.
But concerned parents such as Dale Pratt-Wilson, who formed the Committee for Alcohol- and Drug-Free Teenagers, say better community interaction might be a more practical solution.
“There’s a tremendous amount the council and the community can do to address the issue,” she said.
Pratt-Wilson’s group told the council in December that to curb underage substance abuse, officials might hire additional Alcohol Law Enforcement officers, increase educational programs in schools and establish more substance-abuse treatment facilities in the county.
Area high school officials recently reviewed changes to their substance abuse policy, advocating more preventive measures.
“This is the first time … where this kind of energy has been put into … the need to address substance abuse,” said Stephanie Willis, health services coordinator for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
