Grant County Drug Free Coalition

Other Programs Supported by the Drug-Free Coalition

Fresh Start Program:

Fresh Start is a risk-reduction educational program for offenders of underage drinking. The program uses the curriculum, Prime for Life Under 21, from the Kentucky Prevention Research Institute. Prime for Life is a program designed to gently, but powerfully, challenge common beliefs and attitudes that directly contribute to high-risk alcohol and drug use. The content, process, and sequence of Prime for Life are carefully developed to achieve both prevention and intervention goals. The program goals are:

to reduce problems caused by high-risk drinking or drug use;
to reduce the risk for long-term health problems and short-term impairment problems;
to help people successfully protect the things they value.

Participants learn who can experience alcohol or drug problems, how to estimate biological risk, how to know what low risk is, and which phase of use they are in. Based on persuasion-based teaching, instructors utilize a variety of teaching approaches, including interactive presentations and small group discussions. Participants use workbooks throughout the course to complete a number of individual and group activities. Material is presented using a DVD platform with animation, full-motion video clips, and audio clips to enhance the presentation.

Fresh Start is for 13-21 year olds who are cited with underage drinking offenses. When cited, the officer gives the youth a brochure that has a registration form. The youth has to complete the form and send it in with the program fee within 10 days of receiving their citation. The program is a 12-hour program usually broken into 4 weeks, one night a week for 3 hours. Classes are held in Lancaster and Platteville.

For a brochure and a registration form, click here.

In order to pass the program, the youth needs to attend all the classes, be on time, actively participate, and pass the tests with a 70% or better score. In addition, the youth can not re-offend before, during or within one year of passing the program or before turning 21, whichever occurs first. If youth are 16 and under, a parent and/or guardian need to attend the third night of class with their youth. If the youth passes, the underage drinking citation is voided and is not on their driving or court record. If they should not pass the program, then normal court proceedings are followed. If the youth should re-offend, then both citations will go to court and be processed as two underage drinking citations.

Since the start of the program, March 2002, 1,700 youth have received underage drinking citations. Of those, 1,060 have chosen to take the program and have successfully passed. Of those who have participated in the program, they have reported a change in their knowledge of risk and have made changes to their current drinking patterns.

The Prime for Life program can be used in schools, in communities as parent and youth programs, on college campuses, and can be used in court diversion program.

For further information about Prime for Life and Prevention Research Institute, go to http://www.askpri.org

If interested in implementing a similar successful program in your area, contact Heather Ringberg at 608-348-3824 or roundtable_grantcounty@hotmail.com

Tobacco and Alcohol Compliance Checks:

Grant County conducts both tobacco and alcohol compliance checks. The tobacco checks are funded through the WINS program of Wisconsin and the alcohol checks are funded by the WI Department of Transportation. Both are also funded through the Drug-Free Coalition at the Grant County Health Department. The Sheriff's Department trains the minors and together the officers and minors conduct the checks. Students who are between the ages of 16-18 are welcome to call Kathy Marty or Carol Thole at (608) 723-6416 if interested in conducting the tobacco checks. Students between the ages of 18-21 are encouraged to inquire about the alcohol checks with Tanya Tennessen at UW-Extension (608) 723-2125.

Keg Registration:

In order to deter access of alcohol to underage individuals, the Grant County Drug-Free Coalition is currently working on a statewide keg registration ordinance.

Keg registration ordinances are used primarily to identify and penalize adults and youth who purchase beer kegs and allow underage youth to consume alcohol from them.

What exactly is keg registration?

Keg registration is a process of tagging kegs with stickers, UV Ink, metal tags and other resources to identify the purchaser of the keg. While the retailer is marking/tagging the keg, the purchaser is completing a short registration form that would include information to identify the purchaser. Keg purchasers may also be required to sign a statement promising not to sell alcohol to minors, which can be a tool to educate them about their potential liability. The purchaser may pay a keg registration fee and/or deposit when purchasing the keg.

If the keg is returned with a damaged or removed tag, the fee and/or deposit may be forfeited.

If the keg is confiscated from a party in which underage individuals are consuming the alcohol, the officers will be able to track the keg back to the seller AND the purchaser of the keg. This redirects the liability from the retailer and places the liability on the purchaser.

In theory, this process will deter purchasers from allowing underage individuals access to alcohol for the fear of being prosecuted if the keg is found by law enforcement. States that have passed keg registration laws have seen a reduction in underage drinking and driving accidents and other high-risk drinking behaviors.

Some informational websites about keg registration:

www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/policy/beerkeg.html
Minnesota has a detailed explanation of keg registration and issues that may arise.

http://www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov
The Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) is an electronic resource that provides authoritative, detailed, and comparable information on alcohol-related policies in the United States, at both State and Federal levels. This web site further describes the keg registration process, a history of policy work regarding underage drinking, and statistics about underage drinking.

http://www.state.nh.us/liquor/keg_registration_booklets.shtml
Near the middle of this site there are frequently asked questions about the keg registration law in New Hampshire, which can be applied anywhere.

http://www.co.rockland.ny.us/DWI/STOP.htm
This web site has reasons to implement keg registration and a separate keg registration link.

For further information, please contact Heather Ringberg at 608-348-3824 or roundtable_grantcounty@hotmail.com

Road Crew Program (Beats Driving):

608-732-7437

Road Crew is a community-based program designed to reduce alcohol-related car crashes. The Road Crew is a fun, affordable, hassle free way to enjoy a night on the town with out having to worry about driving home. The Road Crew gives rides to people to the bars, between the bars and towns and home at the end of the night in limos.

Specifically in Grant County
Service areas: Platteville, Lancaster, Cuba City, Dickeyville, Kieler, Belmont.
Hours of operations: Friday and Saturday nights: 7 p.m.-2 a.m.
Thursday nights only in Platteville: 7 p.m-2 a.m.
Ride fares: $2-$5 in town, $5/ride to a different town, $15 for the whole night.
Phone Number: 608-732-7437

This project is about making roads safer for the entire community by decreasing the number of drunk drivers. Road Crew has seen the following results:

Almost 20,000 rides were given to potential drunk drivers from July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003 in the first three rural Road Crew communities.
These rides are estimated to have achieved a 17% reduction in alcohol-related crashes on area roads during the one-year study.
The estimated cost of an average crash is $56,000, while the cost to avoid a crash by implementing a Road Crew program is just $15,000. Savings in the original communities was about $615,000 in the first year.

The biggest demographic group of alcohol-impaired drivers who crash consists of men age 21 to 34. In Wisconsin, for example, more than 80% of drivers who have been cited for operating a vehicle while intoxicated are men. Our brothers, sons, husbands and fathers who are driving drunk do so at an enormous risk to themselves and their communities. Drunk drivers who survive crashes are perhaps injured themselves, face loss of freedom and income as a result of jail or prison sentences, lose driving privileges and suffer damage to their reputations. Often, these drivers have harmed others. Members of the community are vulnerable to being involved in someone else's crash, through no fault of their own.

Some people might feel that this is encouraging greater consumption by providing rides. In focus groups early in the process of developing the Road Crew, participants were asked if they would drink more if they didn't have to drive themselves home. A common response was "we already drink as much as we can; we couldn't possibly drink more." Follow up research showed that there was not an increase in drinking with the implementation of a ride service. Research also has shown that after implementing a ride program in a community, many tavern owners felt their sales went up. They attributed the increase to new customers who felt comfortable drinking outside of their homes when they knew a ride service was available.

Road Crews are available in Dodgeville/Mineral Point area, Polk, Barren, Grant, Milwaukee, and LaCrosse counties. To view an informational video about Road Crew and hear a local judge speak in favor of the program, go to www.roadcrewonline.org.

For a hassle free, fun evening in style for you or a group of friends, call Road Crew at 608-732-7437.