Treasure Coast teens aren’t having much luck buying booze at local bars, package and convenience stores.
According to data released by the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 94 percent of Treasure Coast retailers did not sell alcohol to minors during sting operations conducted in the last 12 months.
That’s the best record in Florida, which had an average of 88 percent of retailers who adhered to the state law against selling alcohol to underage youth.
Nearly one year ago, three teens were killed in an accident on Cove Road in Stuart after consuming alcohol earlier in the night. Law enforcement and others have said those deaths were an eye-opener.
Retailer compliance checks are conducted using investigative aides under 21 years old who attempt to buy alcohol at randomly selected, licensed establishments. Retailers that sell alcohol to teens are issued notices to appear in court and educated on checking identification.
The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, for instance, conducted stings at local convenience stores in the late spring as part of “Operation Safe Prom,” said Sgt. Thom Raulen, the agency’s acting public information officer. The sheriff’s office does other stings periodically during the year.
“Our goal isn’t so much to make arrests but to promote safety,” Raulen said. “If we don’t make a single arrest, but we visit 20 or 30 stores and get the word out to store clerks that we mean business, then our goal is met. That means we’re doing our job and they’re doing their job. Of course, when we do make an arrest, word gets out quickly.”
Keith Andersen, owner of Roy’s Liquors and the adjacent Boozgeois Lounge on U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, agreed that word about an ongoing sting operation “gets around real fast, especially among bartenders. They’ll call their buddies and say, ‘Be careful.’”
About 10 years ago or so, Andersen said, “a lot of stores were pretty lax on checking IDs. Some of them got stung, and now everybody’s more careful.”
“We’re really big on checking IDs. It’s very important that we, first of all, abide by the law and secondly keep alcohol out of kids’ hands,” said Andersen, who noted his store and bar have scanning machines that read bar codes on driver’s licenses to make sure there’s no doubt about a would-be buyer’s age.
As good as the retailers’ compliance rate is, said Darcy Von Ohlen, director of prevention the Stuart-based Tykes & Teens, a nonprofit that provides mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment for youths, most teenagers don’t buy their booze at the local convenience store.
“They’re getting it out of their parents’ refrigerators, from older siblings and from friends who are of legal age,” Von Ohlen said.
The deaths of three teenagers in a traffic accident last August on Cove Road in Stuart illustrate Von Ohlen’s point. According to information released this month by the State Attorney’s Office:
When driver Nicholas Coady, 18, and passengers Connor Graver, 16, and Christopher Briglio, 18, died after their Jeep slammed into a front-end loader, Coady had a blood-alcohol level of 0.251 — more than three times the legal limit — and Graver and Briglio both were impaired by alcohol.
Jeffrey Lopopolo, a friend of Coady’s, admitted to authorities, although he was a minor, he had bought an 18-pack of beer and that Coady, Briglio and Graver drank some of the beer at his house before they went to a party in Palm City.
At that party, hosts David Wayne “Bubba” Harper, 28, and Craig D. Frick, 24, sold cups to drink beer from a keg for $10 each. Frick and Harper, an assistant baseball coach at South Fork High School, have been charged with the second-degree misdemeanor of having an open house party where alcohol was served to minors, including Coady, Briglio and Graver. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail, six months’ probation and a $500 fine.
“What it comes down to,” Von Ohlen said, “is that parents need to talk to their kids about under-age drinking, to tell them it’s unsafe and that they need to wait.”
Smells like Teen Spirits
According to the 2009 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, 26 percent of 18-year-olds statewide said they had used alcohol in the previous 30 days. In the 2008 survey, the latest with county-by-county numbers, the percentage of students in grades six through 12 who had consumed alcohol in the previous 30 days was:
Martin County: 37.8 percent
Indian River County: 35.2 percent
St. Lucie County: 32.1 percent
Okeechobee County: 39.9 percent
Where is thy sting?
Here’s a quick look at how businesses on the Treasure Coast fared over the last 12 months in sting operations to see if they would sell alcohol to minors:
Martin County: 342 businesses tested, 16 sold to minors
St. Lucie County: 77 businesses tested, 2 sold to minors
Indian River County: 204 businesses tested, 18 sold to minors
Okeechobee County:
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