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Big Isle teen drinking
project proves effective

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Star-Bulletin staff

HILO -- A West Hawaii police program against underage drinking called Project Impact puts offenders in a classroom where they see photos of drunken drivers killed in auto accidents.

Then it takes them to parks, abandoned canefields, or un-traveled streets where drunken youths left a mess a few nights earlier, and it makes them clean it up.

The reward is a T-shirt, and the kids actually seem to appreciate it. Project head Lt. Henry Hickman quoted a typical comment: "If I could turn back time, I wouldn't even drink or hold a beer," one youth said.

Of about 100 youths who have gone through the program in the last year, none has been rearrested for drinking, Hickman said.

The year-old West Hawaii success, which started with a grant of just $6,000, was offered by state and Hawaii County officials yesterday as a backdrop to a major announcement.

Officials will now have $400,000 over the next two years to do similar work, thanks to a federal grant which will expand the program and carry out a variety of enforcement activities against underage drinking on the Big Island.

The money is provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and is distributed through the state Office of Youth Services.

Hawaii County got the money because it has the worst youth alcohol statistics in the state. Ninety percent of Big Island 12th-graders have used alcohol and 15 percent of them are classifiable as alcohol abusers. Statewide the figure is 11 percent.

Alcohol is easily available. During three months in 1999, the county Department of Liquor Control did unannounced inspections of 141 alcohol retailers.

One third sold alcohol to decoy youth purchasers, and of those, half did so even after checking the buyer's identification and knowing the buyer was under age.

Much of the money will be used for similar enforcement of liquor laws and to pay overtime for police and state enforcement officers on special duty, officials said.

Mayor Harry Kim likes the rehabilitation approach.

"I'm glad most of the social programs realize it's necessary to go beyond enforcement," he said.