PABLO — A panel of more than 20 people from across the spectrum of law enforcement, probation, prevention, health, human services and five local students spoke about the crisis of underage drinking, binge drinking and drinking and driving in Lake County Monday night at the Joe McDonald Fitness Center on the Salish Kootenai College campus.

The Flathead Reservation Life Link Project, Lake County Time 4 Change Coalition and Strategic Prevention Solutions organized the “Town Hall” forum, which allowed for and encouraged community members to contribute to the dialogue as well.

“Town hall is an opportunity to hear what solutions are being offered in our area to help combat underage drinking and drinking and driving,” Ivy McGowan, Strategic Prevention Solutions project coordinator of the Montana Community Change Project, said. “We still have opportunities to implement things and reduce its effects here and we’re looking for community members to lend their voice and their support in changing the culture that we have around youth drinking and drinking and driving.”

According to lifelong community member Robert Matt, a fourth DUI felony offender, “it boils down to the choices we make.”

One of the “bad kids,” growing up surrounded by alcohol and drugs, Matt said this is the first time he has been sober for more than a year since the fourth, maybe even third grade.

Attributing much of his success and soberness to the Warm Springs Addictions Treatment and Change Program (WATCh) in Butte, Matt said of 112 people in the program with him, 28 were from the Flathead Indian Reservation.

“The amount of DUIs  from this reservation is huge,” he said. “What do they do when they get out? They go back to the same place and do the same things.”

So, Matt started a new outreach program for the men who complete WATCh and want to give back to the community after so many years of “taking” from it. The group meets regularly at Matt’s church in Ronan to provide support, talk about the cultural acceptance of substance abuse on the reservation and connect with the struggling youth population that is most affected, and most at risk to addiction.

Addiction counselor Renee Running Rabbit said that she sees kids ages 13 to 14 who are already addicted to drugs and alcohol.

“They’re getting younger and younger and it’s just not that easy to say, ‘don’t do it anymore,’” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of work and a long time.”

The 2008 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment (PNA) found that two out of three Montana youth report using alcohol during their lifetime (between 13 and 18 years of age). One out of three Montana youth report binge drinking in the last 30 days and eight out of ten high school seniors in Montana have used alcohol before. Finally, 72 percent of teens report they obtained alcohol from their parents or someone over the age of 21.

Tim McClure, of Tribal Police described his recent compliance check participation as “an eye-opener.”

“Access to alcohol, these kids don’t need to find someone older, they can buy it themselves,” he said. “They walk into stores, walk into a bar and are served. The license clearly stated minor on their IDs, and they were still served.”

Unfortunately, it is our culture, McGowan said.

“When we try to have this conversation in the community people will say it feels hypocritical to do that because we did it when we were kids,” she said. “What we want people to think about is, what does it look like? When our kids are going out drinking, they are going out with the idea of getting as drunk as they possibly can in the shortest amount of time. We have kids that die of alcohol poisoning or they get in their vehicle and they kill other people. No one tactic will stop this, but it really has to be a community driven effort.”

In the very least, all the media attention surrounding the problems of underage drinking has raised the issue on the public agenda.

Matt, as well as others in the room believed the felony for repeat DUI offenders should take effect on the third, not fourth DUI offense.

“The consequences we have now, it just doesn’t cut it,” he said. “After a while, time gets easier. It really didn’t teach me anything until I ran out of options.”

According to McGown, the recent push for more serious penalties has really put Montana legislators in the spotlight.

“The push that comes from that has been positive,” she said. “We’ve seen some really good policies put into place on the local level — Like the alcohol compliance issues, checks or party patrols, approaching individual buyers. I think that we are starting to see some really positive things.”