 Underage
Alcohol Sales, ongoing problem in Slidell, Louisiana
A Serious Problem for Local Law Enforcement-Slidell's ongoing effort
to enforce the laws.
Slidell Police
Chief Drennan, is taking the alcohol problems in his St. Tammany Parish,
community seriously. I spoke with him today for an update after
our interview last spring with him on Underage Alcohol problems in his
community, where people under the age of 21 are buying alcohol according
to compliancy checks conducted by the Slidell Police.
Chief Drennan, said "I don't know about the rest of the state, but I can
tell you that we have a serious underage drinking problem here, and we
are going to keep on working hard to enforce the law".
Compliancy in truth is very different from reports by state
enforcement officials. See
this Compliancy report showing less than 20% of outlets selling
to minors, Slidell Police Chief Freddy Drennan, now has conducted
his own compliancy checks twice showing a totally different picture
related to youth and underage access to alcohol in St. Tammany
Parish.
Chief Drennan told me when I asked, that his agency gets no additional
funding or resources to conduct these compliancy checks, and that
overtime pay for officers conducting the stings comes from his Slidell
Police Dept budget. Today Chief Drennan said that these compliancy
checks are performed 2 or 3 times a year. The recent lack of
compliance of the 21mandatory age to purchase alcohol findings are
surprising to Drennan too, only 1 of 25 licensed alcohol outlets
complied with the law in selling alcohol to minors. Local
retailers, and store owners have contacted the Police Dept, with great
concerns about these problems, and do not want their employees selling
to kids. Sharon Ayres of the Louisiana Alliance to prevent
underage
drinking says" Chief Drennan's departments actions are to be
commended, as local enforcement is key in addressing the underage
crisis in our stateHopeNetworks, supports Chief Drennan in his continued efforts to keep
alcohol out of the hands of kids, and will continue to support policy
that helps law enforcement with this issue. Drennan is a hero in
my eyes! He has gone beyond his duty, with no additional funds, to
do what he can do to deal with this overwhelming problem.
2/5/04
Reports claiming the proclaimed success of enforcing underage drinking laws, again
being strongly questioned.
Louisiana
Enforcement Officials claim underage youth are not getting access to
alcohol as you can see in their published reports, however
communities are certainly reflecting a different truth, that indeed only
1 outlet out of 25 complied with the law.
Perhaps the lack of
enforcement in this area explains the
76% of youth
in this region of the state reporting Alcohol Use.
Winn Dixie Slams the phone on HopeNetworks-and efforts to ask about
Underage Alcohol Sales!
Winn Dixie one the 25
Slidell locations busted for selling alcohol to minors last week, during
a sweeping undercover compliancy check, today slammed the phone down
when I asked about plans to address this problem.
"What are you planning to do as the grocery
store manager about these illegal sales?" a fair question
when you consider alcohol is the
most abused drug by youth in Louisiana, and clearly
a huge
problem for
local law enforcement.
The Winn Dixie
Grocery Store on Broome's Switch Road refused to answer questions,
and "Jaime" the store manager hung up on me, when I asked about their
policy of enforcing alcohol sales to minors.
"This makes sense when you consider that Winn Dixie also sold my son
alcohol, these people don't take selling alcohol to kids seriously, and
it was very serious for my son, Cory, it was a death sentence" says
Tammy Domangue, mother of the 19year old LSU student who recently died
from alcohol poisoning, with alcohol purchased at another Winn Dixie
supermarket close to Cory's tiger land apartment.
.
Article from Times Picayune
25 cited with selling
alcohol to minors
-
Slidell police target
clerks, bar workers
By Paul Rloux
St. Tammany bureau
In a continuing crackdown on alcohol
sales to minors, Slidell police cited
25 cashiers, bartenders and
waitresses who sold beer to
underage volunteers working
with police Friday night,
authorities said.
Police said just one employee
checked the
identification of the
volunteers —
Read MORE
History:
HopeNetworks 2003 Interview with Chief Drennan- 90% Non-Compliancy
rate for underage alcohol sales in Slidell, Louisiana
Transcript
of Video
2003
Mandatory
21 Legislative Efforts
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