By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Last Friday night in the Twin Cities, an 18-year-old girl went into 22 convenience stores trying to buy liquor. In six of those stores, she came out carrying bags of booze.

Police who organized the crackdown on underage alcohol sales said the numbers Friday night are not unusual. Store employees who are slack about checking identifications are just one part of the problem that contributes to underage drinking.

Police said the teenager did not look like an adult. Store employees either failed to ask for ID or they let her buy the liquor even without one.

“She was dressed casually,” said Lewiston police Cpl. Robert Ullrich. “She was dressed like any teenager would dress.”

At a summit on underage drinking and drugs Tuesday night, police joined politicians, parents, substance abuse counselors and teenagers to discuss what they describe as a steady problem.

In Androscoggin County, 70 percent of high school seniors admitted they have used alcohol. That includes cities and towns across the county, with no particular areas worse than others, in spite of misconceptions, according to the Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey.

“This is not just a Lewiston problem,” said Vicky Wiegman, a substance abuse counselor for schools in that city. “It is not unique to kids in the city.”

Theresa Arita volunteers her time to help educate teens and adults about the perils of underage drinking. And as a recovering alcoholic, she has insights into the the consequences.

“I’m a parent that knows what it’s like to go through recovery,” Arita said. “It starts out for a lot of teens that drinking is just going to be fun. It traps them. A lot of them are already in trouble and we need to help them.”

Katelyn Perkins, Kate Woodward and Vanessa Ouellette stood before the podium with a few things in common. Each is a student at Edward Little High School in Auburn. Each has made the decision not to drink.

Of all 10th-graders, 61 percent report they have not consumed alcohol in the last 30 days, the girls said. Of the seniors, 55 percent have abstained, according to a survey done by the three young women.

According to Ullrich, who works on the Alcohol Enforcement Team with his partner officer Mike Dumond, manpower is often a hindrance to cracking down on youth drinking. While investigating the case of the 18-year-old who bought booze from a half dozen stores last Friday, they were called out to a party behind a local school. There, dozens of young people ran off into the woods, leaving behind unopened six packs of beer and bottles of hard liquor.

Ullrich agreed with Perkins, Woodward and Ouellette on one strong point: The days where drinking alcohol is considered a rite of passage are coming to an end, among teenagers and police officers alike.

“That attitude,” Ullrich said, “has started to change.”

The early evening gathering was attended by a half dozen Lewiston police officials and a similar number from Auburn and other area police departments.

For Arita, who has experienced personally the ravages of alcohol, the problem is a pressing one. She has a teenage daughter who will soon enter high school, where the majority of underage drinking begins.

“She tells me she has not been tempted,” Arita said. “But kids don’t have the forward thinking that adults do. The less they have alcohol pushed in their faces, the better they’ll be.”

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