So you want to be the cool big brother or sister, aunt or uncle or maybe just the “sophisticated” older buddy of some teens getting ready for a prom party or a weekend on the lake, and you think it’s fine to buy them a little beer and wine to party with? After all, if you can give your life for your country at 18, you really should be allowed a beer or two, right?

Wrong.

In South Carolina it’s against the law to drink under the age of 21 or to supply it to a minor and whether you support the law or not, it’s there and it’s being enforced by law enforcement, community leaders, and even the underage teens themselves.

“Alcohol consumption is not for young people and teens,” said Eunika Simons, director of the Reconnecting Communities Coalition in Richland 2. “Even the older teens can’t always deal with the results of drinking. It’s not just about having a few drinks with friends. Alcohol impairs your judgment and can lead to bigger problems if you start too young.”

The laws in South Carolina regarding underage drinking are strict and the penalties are high. Purchasing, attempting to purchase, consuming or possessing alcohol if you are under the age of 21 can result in almost $500 worth of fines, and/or a 30–day jail sentence along with an alcohol intervention

program for which the offender has to pay. And oh yes….a suspended driver’s license.

But the worst part is the young drinker will have a criminal record that will follow him or her through school and college and maybe into employment years down the road. And that’s just the first offense, according to Simons.

No one wants to see young people buying and drinking alcohol before they are mature enough to handle it so in an effort to thwart teen alcohol use or abuse, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department has joined with the Communities Coalition and the Lexington Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council (LARADC) and the Alcohol Enforcement Team to educate teens and business owners and their employees who deal with alcohol sales.

“If we can educate adults and parents about the seri- ous repercussions of supplying teens with alcohol or hosting drinking parties, we can stop the problem before it begins,” said Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Stover and the Communities Coalition representative. “The Communities Coalition uses strategies and innovative programs to positively affect the community and let parents know what they can do to prevent teen drinking and teen drinking parties.”

One of their programs is Sticker Shock where teens accompanied by adults go into various businesses that sell alcohol and put stickers on beer and wine to remind adults that buying alcohol for teens is breaking the law.

“Business owners and their employees don’t want to be a part of underage alcohol sales so we also have merchant education programs to show them how to spot fake IDs and what to watch for if an adult is buying beer for a teen.”

Debbie Early is the vice presi dent o f LARADAC, and she said that community awareness is the biggest weapon against underage drinking.

“We have to mobilize and let people know that teens drinking alcohol is a serious problem,” she said. “Our Sticker Shock program makes people think twice before putting alcohol in the hands of a teenager who could be planning to drive or take it to a party where there will be other kids who will drink and drive.”

According to Outoftheirhand. com, a statewide anti–teen drinking program, the statistics are stunning about teens and alcohol use.

“Teens who drink in their early teens are five times more likely to become dependent than those who start at 21,” the website said. “The single biggest predictor of teens using illicit drugs is early use of alcohol.”

Additionally, the website said that because the brain is still developing during the teen years,

heavy drinking during that time can cause long range harm t o thinking abilities.

Stover said that because the community has joined with the schools and parents, there has been a lot of participation in the various programs to prevent teens from drinking.

“It’s prom time so we are on high alert for the next few weeks. If a merchant is suspicious, they call us,” Stover said. “Neighbors who suspect that a party has teens drinking call us, and even parents have called us to patrol their homes if they go out of town and leave their teens at home. And most recently, the teens themselves have told us about illicit parties where alcohol is being served. We have a lot of young people participating in the Sticker Shock program.”

One of those young people is Craig Shuman, a high school senior and a member of the Youth Action Council.

“I just want to be part of raising the awareness of people who might give alcohol to minors,” Shuman said. “I think I’m too young to drink, and so are my friends. I guess we’re all working together to keep kids like us from drinking.”

And the team work is what changes things, according to Stover.

“Working together makes all the difference,” he said. “Education that makes people aware of the dangers of teen drinking beats enforcement of the broken laws after the fact anytime.”