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Marc Giauque ReportingYou may hear your teenaged child talking about efforts to keep them from drinking alcohol at graduation. What you may not know is that by some estimates, the alcohol industry makes millions of dollars a year from underage drinking.
Tara has worked on and off as a convenience store clerk for about 12 years. She's not surprised at all by the findings of a Columbia University study.
"Kids that want to buy alcohol, they'll find a way. They'll either get someone else to buy it for them, or a lot of times people don't really look at an ID," she says.
No surprise to these young people either.
"You always hear that, like in classes and stuff, so it's always happening."
"It's happening everywhere, it's easily accessible."
Researchers base their estimate that underage drinkers spend about 23 million dollars a year on alcohol, on studies of children beginning at age 12.
"I think it probably happens a lot more than a lot of people normally think," says Tara.
Tara, as you might imagine, has heard a lot of excuses when people are asked for their ID.
"They'll pat their pockets and say, 'Oh, uh, I don't have my wallet with me,' or 'Oh, um, you know me; I've bought it here before.'"
She says she's seen sometimes when another clerk at a store allows under-aged friends buy it; other times, she says parents are accessories.
"I've had people come in and have their kids with them that are obviously not old enough and they'll go straight over to the (case) and kind of whisper back and forth. The adult comes up and buys it."
Why?
"I think a lot of parents think that if they are there at the house then at least they are there and not somewhere else and can be watched there. But I don't agree with that," she says.
In fact, the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission says 70-percent of illegally consumed alcohol comes from parents or other adults. It's why parents like Norma Tabish are very busy this time of year.
"You are playing Russian Roulette by endangering their lives, resulting in either injury, alcohol poisoning, or death," Tabish says.
Tabish knows by experience. Her 17-year old son died in an alcohol related crash, after she says a 34-year old supplied him and his friends with alcohol. She now spends a lot of time working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Researchers in Utah say half of all high school students say they've used alcohol.
