The Lake County Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force will receive additional funding of $125,000 every year for the next five years through a grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

            The Task Force will work to address underage drinking and prescription drug abuse in Lake County. The group was formed in 2006 in response to alcohol and drug problems among high school and middle school students.

            “I feel like a majority of students at LZHS aren’t using drugs and alcohol on a regular basis,” Laura Rolfes, sophomore, said. “It’s easy to live a drug free lifestyle here at LZHS because I feel like the majority of other people do choose to live that way.”

“The Drug-Free Communities Support Program recognizes the great potential of Lake County Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force to help save young people’s lives,” Raymond Rose, Mundelein Police Chief and Co-chair of the Task Force, said to The Patch.

The Task Force is made up of a group of leaders in Lake County whose mission is to provide leadership and resources to help prevent youth substance abuse.  The group is comprised of parents, youth, teachers, religious organizations, health care and business professionals, law enforcement, the media, and others working together at county level.

This grant will allow the task force to hire a full-time coordinator for planning new activities. In total, the Task Force will receive $625,000 from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The Drug Free Communities Grant was awarded to only 60 communities nationally. The Task Force is the fourth coalition in Lake County to receive the competitive grant.

“This new funding will allow the Task Force to mobilize and organize our county to prevent youth substance abuse,” Rose said.

            They will be concentrating on increasing relationships with parents to reduce youth access to alcohol and prescription drugs.

            “Teens have been consistently reporting that they wished their parents would talk to them more about drugs and alcohol,” Sean M. Hoyer, treatment specialist at OMNI youth services, said. “Yet parents have been consistently recording that they don’t believe their kids want them to become involved. See that disconnect?”

            Many parents and teachers believe that the best way to counteract the peer pressure that may occur is to educate the student’s with correct and valuable information regarding drugs and alcohol.

            “I feel that educating people on the harmful effects of drugs only go so far,” Rolfes said. “If we could talk more about real people in our school or community that have been affected by these issues I think it would make so much more of an impression on us.”

            The Task Force will increase the number of compliance checks, social host ordinances, and prescription drug disposal receptacles.

            The Office of National Drug Control Policy will fund the Lake County group to help them grow more collaborative and implement activities to reduce youths’ alcohol and drug use. 

            “I feel like if [the Task Force] seriously took the time to volunteer information for students it might help,” Rolfes said. “I also think that it will be hard for just one group to change the problems of underage drinking.”