80% of Essex County teens have tried alcohol, study indicates

ELIZABETHTOWN -- The Essex County District Attorney's Office has partnered with county substance-abuse counselors to try to head off teenage drinking before the courts get involved.

DA Julie Garcia said they've created BEST -- Bringing Essex County's Strengths Together -- to work on the problem.

MAJOR PROBLEM'

Garcia said surveys done by the Essex County Prevention Team, headquartered in Ticonderoga, revealed that 80 percent of the county's teens had sampled alcoholic beverages.

The state average is 35 percent, she said.

"In Essex County, this is not a small problem. Underage drinking in Essex County is a major problem."

The results of the survey of schools in the county was startling, Garcia said.

"That's 80 percent of the kids in the county. We are almost triple the state average in Essex County for underage drinking."

COMMUNITY MEETINGS

So far, the BEST program seems to be effective, she said.

"It's been going strong. We're raising awareness of underage drinking in Essex County."

Garcia said they're going to special community meetings and the Youth Opportunity Fair in Lake Placid to talk about the problem.

"This problem is a community problem. It has to be addressed from every angle. It needs the attention of every single one of us. Until we start addressing this problem, we're going to have reports like this."

The Ticonderoga-Putnam-Hague Connecting Youth and Communities program is also involved and will be hosting community meetings on the issue.