Articles on this page were written for Gallatin Safe Kids, Safe Communities or for the DUI Task Force by Jenna Caplette
[Link]Get Acquainted with the Realities of Underage Drinking
GUEST OPINION: Be part of the DUI solution, not the problem
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, December 19th 2005
By Jenna Caplette
In November a Gallatin County driver received his seventh DUI. Since then, there has been an active community dialogue about impaired driving. That's a good thing at any time of year, but especially important now. The holiday season is one of the highest risk times of year for DUI-related traffic incidents, and for DUI-related deaths. Read the full article.
GUEST OPINION: Don’t let Halloween turn into a nightmare
The Belgrade News, October 28th 2005
By Jenna Caplette
Halloween is most often thought of as a time for family fun — funny costumes, trick-or-treating with the kids and the annual haunted houses — but it can be a dangerous and deadly time of year.
In 2003, 53 percent of all highway fatalities across the nation over Halloween weekend were alcohol-related. Forty-five percent of the total fatalities involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of 0.08 or higher — the legal limit in every state including Montana.
Get Acquainted With The Realities of Underage Drinking
Bozeman Daily Chronicle, May 29th, 2004
by Jenna Caplette
If there are seasons of increased risk of underage drinking and driving, graduation is one of them. Summer campouts and keggers bring another. According to the 2002 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment (PNA), 59.3 percent of Montana 12th graders had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days, and 34 percent had driven a vehicle after drinking. Nationally, alcohol is a factor in nearly one-half of all teen auto crashes, the leading cause of death for teens.
Read the full guest opinion column, by the DUI Task Force Coordinator, Jenna Caplette, here.
Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month 2003
Guest Editorial, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, December 31st 2003
December 19, 2003 through January 4, 2004 are designated days for the national crackdown to deter impaired driving. This is one of the most heavily traveled holiday periods each year. During this time, your Gallatin County DUI Task Force will sponsor four DUI overtime patrols by local law enforcement agencies, patrols that focus completely on DUI enforcement. The intention? To save lives. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) forecasts 2,600 DUI and non-seatbelt deaths nationally during this holiday season.
As you toast in the New Year, consider that alcohol causes more societal ills than either tobacco or illegal drugs. It too easily moves from being a social lubricant to a crutch, and the holiday party circuit can challenge the gregariousness of even the most social folks. But alcohol is not alone in causing impaired driving -- that's why 3D Month references "drunk and drugged driving." It includes impairment caused by a range of substances from marijuana to prescription drugs.
Earlier this month, NHTSA named Montana as the state with the highest number of alcohol-related deaths per miles traveled for 2002. Another rural state, Utah, came in with one of the lowest rates. In 2003, Montana's legislature passed many needed reforms in DUI law that may impact future death rates, but there are still other reforms needed, including the passage of a state-wide law making it an offense to drive with an open container of alcohol.
In addition, DUI drivers need consequences to be both immediate and inconvenient. Offenders need a clear message that what they have chosen to do is dangerous, and illegal. For these, Gallatin County's need to cite and release DUI drivers because of overcrowding in our Detention Center, can read like a "slap on the hand," to offenders. The Detention Center lacks the space to process and detain all of our county DUIs.
In research sponsored by Gallatin Safe Kids, Safe Communities, the Gallatin County DUI Task Force assembled county-wide DUI citation data for April and May of this year. That data was evaluated by David Bennett, the consultant analyzing Gallatin County's Criminal Justice system. Of the 165 DUI arrests researched, 136, or 82 percent were cited and released.
The April/May data included some surprises: the average age of DUI offenders in that time period was 31.2 years, not college-aged. Twenty-eight percent of those cited had a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .11 to .20 percent, far above the current legal limit of .08 percent. Arrests by the Highway Patrol averaged the highest BAC, with levels up to .30 percent. Less of a surprise: Bozeman's Police Department made 51 percent of the arrests researched. Seventy-nine or 61 percent of the 165 arrests were for first offense DUIs, and 80 percent of offenders pled guilty as charged.
The average sentence length? One day. By the end of October, 112 of the 165 DUI's originally cited, had both been sentenced and served their time.
That leaves Gallatin County residents with a clear reality: the most immediate solution for DUI in our county is a community-based one. Take responsibility. Inform yourself. Make a commitment to practices like designating a sober driver. Stay off the road if you've been drinking. And, be willing to intervene in the behavior of others. Simply, "Friends don't let friends drink and drive." And, become involved in the dialogue about necessary changes to our Law and Justice System - ultimately, if you want safer streets, you'll need to be willing to invest in a system that supports those.
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Jenna Caplette represents Gallatin County Safe Kids, Communities Coalition and the DUI Task Force.
 an interview with former TV anchorman Dennis CarlsonSubstance Abuse — Answering, "How could this happen?"
From The High Country Independent Press, January 2004
“I love the community. It‚s a fantastic place to live,” Dennis Carlson says. “But this community is in denial about substance abuse and the extent to which it moves across all demographics, all ages.
For thirteen years, Carlson worked in broadcast journalism, both in radio and on television, in Gallatin County. We meet in my office, get right down to the work of our interview. I want to know how he became so committed to covering the issues of substance abuse and impaired driving.
“Whether in court or at the scene of an accident and its aftermath, the question I heard people asking was, “How could this happen?‚ A young woman in Big Sky, with her whole life in front of her, is killed by a man with multiple DUIs who is still driving. Two teenagers leave a high school function in a vehicle. They’re involved in a one vehicle rollover west of town, and one dies.” Confronted by these situations, Carlson heard people ask that same question, again and again, “How could this happen?”
“This community needs to answer that question,” Carlson says, “And yet, they never take the time to answer it. It has to start with the individual asking things like, “How is it that teens have access to alcohol? Who gives or sells it to them? How is it that it‚s okay to get so messed up that they can‚t function? Where does that come from?”
“Young people who drink and drive have to understand that if you’re going to make adult decisions and do adult things, you need to have adult consequences.”
Carlson pauses, adds, “In terms of older offenders, who sells them that drink before they go out and injure or kill someone? If they are a multiple DUI offender, why are they free? Who set them free from jail or prison? What are the circumstances?”
The media plays a critical role in keeping those questions before the public, and in helping to answer them. “It’s important to keep those stories on the air, to tell it like it is, to go where the story takes who, without fear or favor. That’s what media ought to be doing and for the most part that’s true.”
Well, yes, but Gallatin County is one of the smaller media markets in the United States. Many come here to develop the kind of experience that will allow them to work in a larger market. As positions turn over, new reporters cannot bring an intimacy with the community to their work. The loss of someone like Carlson, who knows Gallatin County and has rooted here, is significant.
These days, Carlson works as a clerk in the county elections department. He has started a business consulting with people and groups who want to work with the news media, and is producing videos. When asked about his change in profession, Carlson answered, “Myself and management at KTVM decided to move in different directions.”
One of the early members of the Gallatin County DUI Task Force, the issues of substance abuse and driving impaired have long been important to Carlson. “I have had a significant events in my life where I have seen the cost of drugs or alcohol on friends, acquaintances, and the general public. I had friends killed with drug/alcohol incidents or their lives were seriously damaged.” Add to that, “In the news I was on the scene of several tragic accidents, or in court to follow a case of negligent homicide, see the victims and their pain is right here, in court they relive the tragic loss of their loved one.
“With any specific issue, every day in the news room there are a lot of decisions to make about what to cover. . . It’s important to talk about issues that the community needs to be aware of. In terms of substance abuse, I was always interested in getting the word out about DUIs, about MADD forming, in following up on stories, and presenting side bar stories after a high profile incidence like negligent homicide.
“Every case is different. Coverage needs to be balanced between painting too broad of a brush stroke and falling in to stereotypical situations.” The common denominator he did see was, “There’s a lack of individual accountability . . .and, this is an issue of disease matched with personal responsibility and accountability. When someone can bring those together, they are really on the road to recovery.”
Ah, that often-aired word, responsibility. The alcohol industry asks that you drive responsibly, the gambling industry urges you to play responsibly. But what does that mean? To Carlson, “It means thinking about the consequences, and extends to my responsibilities as a community member.” Carlson has often heard the comment, “‘‚m not doing anything to anyone else.” His take on that? “If you go out in a car, and you can’t see straight because you’re so drunk, what about the person coming toward you? Or the one on the sidewalk? A two or three thousand pound car is a lot of metal. So many people who drive impaired don’t think they’re impaired.
“In the news I was on the scene of several tragic accidents, or in court to follow a case of negligent homicide. I saw the victims and their pain it’s right here, in court they relive the tragic loss of their loved one.”
In those court cases, Carlson often saw perpetrators, “portrayed as a victim, and therefore not seen to be responsible for his or her actions. . . In our society today if you’re accused of a crime and portrayed as a victim you’re not allowed to be responsible.”
That word again, responsibility. What’s the responsibility, then, of the media? Carlson answered that question by saying, “The media’s job is to tell it like it is, whatever the subject is. To take an issue, and present it as fairly as possible, to say, “One side says this, one that. Give the audience enough credit to think and come to their own conclusions.
“Twenty years ago the majority of broadcast media was owned by people with deep roots in Montana. That paradigm has changed immensely. There’s a large debate in the business itself, is that a good or a bad thing? You can’t equate corporate ownership with a lack of commitment, it depends on the people you hire. Young, smart, and eager reporters are always looking for good stories.”
Carlson sees the impact of the increased options for consumers offered by new technologies. “More and more people are getting their information and entertainment off satellite dishes, or on the Internet. We’re moving toward a tech component where things will be on-demand, where people will be carrying in their pocket, or on their hip, a little module the size of a cell phone that will provide you with all your information, communication and entertainment needs. We’re moving toward an on-demand —I want it now‚ culture. And that includes, I want to feel good now.
“We don’t think about the consequences. Substance abuse is not a quick fix. There is fall out, consequences, something that stays with a person for a long, long time. You can’t run up that kind of debt on your own body.” We need to, “ Move forward on the road to find strategies that will prevent these things from continuing to take place. How you perceive the problem is an important part of how you solve the problem.
“In terms of this community, there are as many challenges as there are people. You can’t have one program that solves the problem.
“There’s not a single answer,” Carlson believes, yet “A desire to have a single answer.” Speaking from the core of his own convictions, Carlson describes humans as, “spiritual beings.” And, ultimately, “. . . these kinds of problems require a spiritual answer. . .”
The first step, though, requires that the community invoke that same question, “How can these things keep happening?” with the sure knowledge that each of us has a role in creating a solution. “Until then,” Carlson says, “People will continue to die needlessly and lives and families will continue to be destroyed by the hunger and thirst for drugs and alcohol.”
_________________________________________________ Coordinator for the Gallatin County DUI Task Force, Jenna Caplette writes on the topic of Impaired Driving as a part of Gallatin County Safe Kids, Safe Communities.
Your Brain on Alcohol: Why Wait Until After 21?
By Jenna Caplette, Gallatin County DUI Task Force Coordinator
in conjunction with Gallatin Safe Kids, Safe Communities
Eighteen and you might be fighting in Iraq. But you need to be 21 to drink. How can that possibly make sense?
The truth is, setting the age of initiation for drinking at 21 sense both in the ways that were expected when the law was established, and in surprising new ways revealed by brain research. The bottom line? The brain is still growing, still elastic, until the age of 21 to twenty-three. Using alcohol interrupts that process of growth, with long term, sometimes permanent, consequences.
Before the release of the findings on the brain, setting 21 as the age of initiation for drinking had more to do with the too-often fatal mix of drinking and driving for inexperienced drivers. Since states began shifting drinking ages to 21 in 1975, the number of alcohol-related fatalities for young drivers has dropped some 60%. Jim Hall, a chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board has called state age-21 laws, "one of the most effective public policies ever implemented. . . ".
The physiological effect of alcohol on drivers is well documented. Alison Counts, former Safe and Drug Free Schools Coordinator for Belgrade Public Schools, describes some of them. "Alcohol slows everything down. Think of it like this: when a message needs to get from one brain cell to another, there’s a donut hole along the way and the message needs to get through that hole. But alcohol plugs the hole, does not allow that message to get through. As a result, people do things like drive through a red light, then their foot hits the brake. They don’t see the red light until they are already through it.
That’s what happens to reaction time.
"Alcohol affects hearing. You can’t tell what direction a sound is coming from, important with train whistles. You can’t feel cold, so some people drive at 30 below with the window down. Alcohol intensely affects the central nervous system, so at the same time reaction time is slowed down, a person’s breathing rate and heart rate also slow. That’s hypothermic in nature, especially when driving with the window down on a cold winter night. Alcohol gives a drinker a warm flushed feeling, but it cools the body."
The impact of alcohol on young drinkers doesn’t isolate itself to driving. Counts explains, "All our newest research shows that damage to the young brain is intense. The brain shrinks by about 10%." With brain scans, "you can compare those who drink and those who do not. Their brains are about 10% smaller. Functioning is decreased in all parts of the brain." Some of the effects include "an inability to learn as well, to absorb knowledge, and memory problems. Everything is slower."
In the fact sheet, "Effects of Alcohol on the Brains of Adolescents," the American Medical Association (AMA) asserts, "Compared to students who drink moderately or not at all, frequent drinkers may never be able to catch up in adulthood, since alcohol inhibits systems for storing new information as long-term memories and makes it difficult to immediately remember what was just learned."
Counts says, "When they do testing with young people comparing those who have used alcohol, even after as much as several days after using, in doing manual dexterity tests and memory tests, they are slower than those have not used alcohol."
Equally compelling, alcohol and other drugs interfere with the brain’s ability to create dopamine, to feel good naturally. "A young person who damages that ability," says Counts, "is in the actual process of becoming addicted. Their tolerance level goes up, the brain adapts, becomes more dependent on the chemical to create the feel-good effect."
Is the damage permanent? Counts says that depends on "how long and how much. The younger the brain, the more likely the damage is permanent. The brain’s ability to grow, to finish that person as a human being, only goes on so long. The younger a person is, the more it extremely slows down or stops the process of the brain maturing. That’s why it's much easier for someone who is young to get addicted. For youth, the process can be as short as six months to two years. For adults over the age of 21, it's as much as fifteen to twenty years.
"If you grow up alcohol free, you can have a brain at 25 that has the emotional capacity of a 25 year old. With damage, a 25 year old person might have the emotions of a 15 year old, and the coping skills of a 15 year old."
Lesa Maher, Youth Liaison at Bozeman’s Adolescent Resource Center (ARC), describes the information on the brain as some of the most compelling she can share with teens. "A lot of kids say, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize.’ There’s a fair amount of health consciousness with kids. They see the brain damage and they know it's not healthy."
Kara Hubbard, former ARC adolescent counselor says, "The scans of the brain at www.brainplace.com
are helpful when we talk about addiction, what it is, and what different drugs do to your body. Kids want something tangible. They want facts. There’s nothing theoretical about this. This takes ‘Your Brain on Drugs’ to a new level."
As parents, friends, or mentors to youth, this information gives you an opportunity to rethink your own policies and attitudes toward underage drinking. As a rite of passage, drinking is potentially deadly, with well-documented long term effects. Is that the kind of rite of passage you want to promote, to support?
For an article from the American Medical Association on the same topic, click here.
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