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SAN DIEGO ISSUE BRIEFING: U.S. TEEN AND BINGE DRINKING IN MEXICO — BINATIONAL COALITIONS PROGRESS TOWARDS REAL SOLUTIONS —  May, 1999
Purpose of this Issue Briefing: In 1997 IHA published its first report on the public health and safety issues related to U.S. teen and binge drinkers in Tijuana. Since then the dialogue has broadened to include the voices of community leaders, public health practitioners, policy makers and residents throughout Southern California and Baja California, Mexico.
The purpose of this Issue Briefing is to provide an overview of the problem along with strategies and tactics the project is implementing, acknowledge where progress has been made and to offer information on how to participate in the project.
Problem: The problem of underage and binge drinking in Mexico is a unique issue for communities along the southwest United States border.
For many generations, border cities in Mexico have been destinations for American youth for the purpose of tourism and evening entertainment. Differences in alcohol policies, drinking age, 18 years of age in Mexico and 21 years of age in the United States, the standards of and limitations of enforcement of United States and Mexico laws on alcohol consumption have contributed to significant public health and public safety problems on both sides of the international border. For example, in Tijuana, Mexico, thousands of United States teenagers attend downtown Tijuana nightclubs every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night and visit youth-oriented clubs to consume low-priced alcoholic drinks. Sophisticated promotional techniques reach Southern California youth through radio and print ads or flyers distributed on or near local schools. As a result, many youth experience health-related problems, violence and vehicle crashes caused by excessive drinking, and pose a serious danger to themselves and others in Mexico and in San Diego County and throughout Southern California.
Heavy drinking incidents by youths or adults can lead to a variety of serious consequences including:
  • Deaths and injuries related to DUI vehicle crashes. These incidents often occur 25 to 50 miles north of the U.S. border checkpoint.
  • Fights, injuries and arrests in Tijuana, in pedestrian crossing lines at the U.S. border, and in public places, homes, residence halls and barracks throughout San Diego County.
  • Alcohol-fueled violent crimes including murder, rape, and armed robbery
  • Addiction to alcohol and other drugs
  • Poor performance or dropout from high schools, colleges and universities
  • Exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) including HIV
  • Unplanned teen pregnancies
"The border project is providing an opportunity to support youth and families in San Diego and Tijuana by reducing alcohol-related problems in a variety of ways. I’m really pleased with that."--Greg Cox, San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Strategies toward Solutions
The project utilizes a combination of science-based prevention strategies. Science has helped integrate both public health and safety components in its efforts to permanently reduce alcohol-related crime and violence in the San Diego/Tijuana border region.
  • Community advocacy through newsmaking: Over the past year, the project successfully engaged leaders from the community, government, law enforcement, and the hospitality industry as newsmakers in the US and in Mexico. More than 300 news stories helped to increase awareness of cross-border problem-solving collaboration and the increase in alcohol-related enforcement and on both sides of the border. The project’s media advocacy campaign has earned the attention of respected news outlets across the U.S. and Mexico, including a front page stories in the LA Times and Tijuana’s Zeta, ABC Nightly News, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, CBS News 48 Hours, ABC News 20/20, El Mexicano and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
  • Provide support for binational enforcement of existing laws: IHA has coordinated widespread community support to establish a permanent high-profile multi-agency alcohol-related law enforcement presence in Tijuana and at the San Ysidro border crossing, dubbed Operation Safe Crossing which includes officers from San Diego Police, CHP, Federal Police, National City Police and Chula Vista Police. Increased enforcement operations prevent intoxicated people returning to the U.S. from causing harm to themselves and others by conducting DUI law enforcement operations, checking IDs of youthful appearing would-be crossers, enforcing public drunkenness laws, detaining severely intoxicated pedestrians, performing crowd control tactics and intervening in other alcohol-related crimes. CHP and San Diego Police will conduct 35 high-visibility DUI operations at and in the vicinity of the San Ysidro Port of Entry as part of Operation Safe Crossing. Additional resources for enforcement are needed and have been requested.
"The next step is to dramatically increase resources to implement a vigorous Zero Tolerance law enforcement operation along the U.S. side of the border." --Ron Ottinger, Chair, San Diego County Policy Panel on Youth Access to Alcohol
Graph Showing Decline in Late Night-Early Morning Pedestrian Border Crossing AFTER INTERVENTION Average weekend - Pedestrians crossing from 12:00 midnight to 5:00 am*

intervention chart

Reducing the Party’s Size
  • Data Collection: IHA survey teams have been collecting information at the San Ysidro Port of Entry since April 1997. The survey teams interview pedestrians, drivers and vehicle passengers that are U.S. residents returning from Tijuana to gather data including age, occupation, purpose of visit, and means of transportation home, they also offer voluntary breathalyzer tests. The process also monitors the bar scene in Tijuana, making routine on-site assessments in Tijuana, which include the level of alcohol promotion, ID checking, and enforcement. Data collected are used to evaluate the community prevention components of the project and to support the intervention components by providing a scientifically validated depiction of the problem.
  • Binational Prevention Infrastructure: The initial work group has evolved to become a Binational Policy Council on the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, building the much-needed cross-border community infrastructure to make policy recommendations that will reduce AOD problems throughout the border region. Strategic planning, implementation, and policy leadership are provided through the council’s Executive Committee. Currently, the Binational Policy Council consists of three work groups:
    • Binational Intercollegiate Council which brings together university and college officials, faculty and students from both sides of the border to address alcohol and other drug issues that affect campus communities.
    • Binational Community Council consisting of governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community-based groups along the border region to work with the military and public health practitioners advocating for support of existing policies and the creation of new policies to reduce the health and safety impact of alcohol and other drugs on both sides of the border.
    • Binational Business Council is forming to focus on problems related to cross-border transport of prescription drugs for illegal use in the US. This policy-focused working group includes business leaders, trade associations, enforcement agencies and policy makers from the U.S. and Baja California.
  • Binational Collaboration between Hospitality Industry and Regulatory Agencies: The California Alcohol Beverage Control agency teamed up with Baja California’s Office of Tourism and Tijuana’s Regulatory Agency (Reglamentos) to conduct a series of binational workshops to train regulatory agents, bar owners and employees from Tijuana and Rosarito to accurately spot false US identification cards.
  • Creation of Permanent Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) Training: The program is based on the California Certified Responsible Beverage Service curriculum used in San Diego and other communities in California. In cooperation with the San Diego Responsible Hospitality Coalition the training materials were translated, culturalized and tailored to meet the specific needs of businesses in Baja California. RBS training helps to reduce sales to minors, reduce the overall level of intoxication and to reduce DUI. The RBS program has also been adopted by the Cities of Rosarito Beach and Ensenada to the south of Tijuana.
  • Encourage public and policy maker discussion and action: Through the use of media advocacy and scientific validation the project has raised the issues related to underage and binge drinking in Mexico to a new priority on the public agenda. This year, Greg Cox of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors hosted a meeting for elected officials from San Diego County and Baja California to discuss cross-border alcohol and other drug issues and the progress made toward solutions. Project leaders continue to meet with individual legislators to discuss policy concepts, to create permanent changes and eradicate some of these problems.
Nationally recognized for his work in DUI and youth drinking, Dr. Robert Voas, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation , is the Principal Investigator for the project’s science component. Scientific research papers related to this project published by Dr. Voas to date include: Military Base Identification: A Preliminary Report (5/98), Tijuana Bar Promotions (8/98), Students and the Tijuana Bar Scene (9/98), and Youth Escaping Limits on Drinking (12/98). Call IHA at (619) 474-8844 to request a copy of these reports. Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation Reports included on this web site include:Avoiding Underage Drinking Laws - Who Does it & Border Binging: A San Diego Health & Safety Problem. Please see the Science and tools section of this web site.
"Avenida Revolucion merchants are working to modify marketing and business practices to attract older, more up-scale tourists, which is consistent with our region’s economic growth."--Juan Tintos, Baja California Secretary of Tourism
Successes to Date
  • High visibility enforcement operations have helped to reduce the average number of partiers crossing to Tijuana by 31% and have stopped thousands of under 18 year olds from crossing into Tijuana and entering Tijuana bars to drink.
  • Mexican authorities report that late night crime and violence along Avenida Revolución has decreased significantly.
  • Late night calls for emergency medical services to the border have been reduced.
  • Coalition members organized a major news event to confront Playboy when the magazine identified Rosarito as the ‘hottest party spot’ over spring break.
  • More than 540 fake IDs have been confiscated from US juveniles under age 18 attempting to buy alcohol in Tijuana bars and clubs.
  • Tijuana officials also increased the first-offense fine for serving alcohol to minors.
  • The Secretary of Tourism of Baja California in collaboration with Tijuana’s regulatory and law enforcement agencies, has established a permanent Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) training program.
  • More than 200 bar and restaurant operators and employees have been trained in responsible beverage service practices.
"We have worked hard to build cooperative relations with our partners in Mexico on numerous public safety issues. We know that together we can tackle this one."--Alan Bersin, U.S. Attorney (Aug. 1997)
What are the next steps?
 
Looking towards the future over the course of the next two years the project will continue utilizing the strategies and tactics, which thus far have proven effective. Project goals and objectives can best be defined within the following categories:
  • Capacity Building to Broaden Environmental Prevention: The project will continue to facilitate the development of cross-border prevention infrastructure and building capacity for greater community involvement in binational alcohol and other drugs prevention work. The council will host focused prevention leadership and newsmaker workshops, facilitated in both Spanish and English to train youth and adult community volunteers to access the free local and national news media to reflect strong public support for this issue. Participants learn how to develop high volume community based news generation as a central public information strategy to support law enforcement activities and send policy-focused messages. These workshops will be offered in San Diego and Imperial Counties as well as Baja California. With binational host organizations, the policy council anticipates extending to the rest of the US/Mexico border region over time.
Crossing the Rio Grande to carouse in Mexico has been a rite of passage for border teenagers for generations. Now, Patricio Martinez, governor of Chihuahua, Mexico wants to clamp down on Ciudad Juarez’s party-all-night image by raising the legal minimum drinking age to 21 for visiting U.S. residents. --Dave Harmon, Austin American Statesman, March 4, 1999
  • Augment Law Enforcement: While law enforcement presence has increased at the port of entry, there are still challenges to increasing the level of enforcement under existing alcohol-related laws. California’s Zero Tolerance for Youth Drinking and Driving law in its current form does not apply to pedestrians. New policies are needed to stop pedestrians coming back into the US intoxicated before they become drunk-drivers.
"Stopping pedestrians who are too impaired to drive will help save lives." --Lilliana Flores, MADD San Diego County Chapter
  • Incorporate Emergency Medical Services into the intervention process at the border: A focused planning group is underway to outline a process to incorporate triage services as an intervention at the border. Triage services and referral for people in distress at the border can prevent inappropriate use of emergency medical resources.
Impact Policy Changes: Project leaders continue to work closely with individual policy-makers to amend existing policies and/or develop new policies in the following issue areas:
  • disparity in drinking age (minimum drinking age in US 21 years, in Mexico, 18 years old)
  • disparity in bar closing hours (2:00 am in California, 5:30 am (all night) in Tijuana)
  • joint enforcement operations, such as DUI
  • binational alcohol marketing issues (bilaterally, so that alcohol marketing in either country does not promote unsafe consumption).
How to Participate
The Border Project is a model cross-border community-organizing project. As such there are numerous opportunities for agency personnel, public health practitioners, community advocates and policy makers from across the border region to participate.
  • Join the growing team of skilled newsmakers: Attend media advocacy workshops in English or Spanish and participate in newsmaking opportunities. Project news events receive TV, radio and print media coverage not only in San Diego and Tijuana but also in Los Angeles and a host of other cities. Spokespersons and participants are needed in English and/or Spanish. Workshops are open to anyone interested in learning how to become an effective newsmaker on this and other issues.IPS/IHA also offers technical training on our professional video camera and editing equipment. Call IPS/IHA’s Communications department at (619) 474-8844 for a calendar of upcoming newsmaker workshops.
  • Contribute your ideas. Meetings of task groups are open to anyone interested in helping to reduce and prevent alcohol and other drug problems along the U.S / Mexico border. Anyone interested is welcome to attend the prevention leadership and newsmaker workshops, facilitated in both Spanish and English to train youth and adult community volunteers to access the free local and national news media to reflect strong public support for this issue. Participants learn how to develop high volume community based news generation as a central public information strategy to support law enforcement activities and send policy-focused messages. In addition, the council continues to seek community input in advancing the public policy agenda. Call IPS at (619) 474-8844 to be added to the mailing list, to be notified of future meetings and to receive the most current workshop information.
  • Volunteer for Operation Safe Crossing: Join community advocates, student activists, law enforcement agents, prevention practitioners for night-time intervention activities at the border crossing. Call IPS at (619) 474-8844 for volunteer information. 
  • Be part of the solution! Contribute your ideas, creativity and passion to improve health and safety throughout the border region. Call Ips at (619) 474-8844.
This issue briefing was prepared by Dana Stevens of the Institute for Health Advocacy (IHA) with funding from San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, Alcohol and Drug Services.

 

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