LEWISTON – Most kids in high school don’t drink, but there is some peer pressure.

Drinking doesn’t help take away stress, it creates stress.

Those and other lessons are being delivered to eighth-graders by high school students in a new initiative to discourage underage drinking: “U Booze U Looze.” The idea is to deliver an anti-drinking message to youths by someone they’ll listen to: other youths.

The Lewiston initiative was introduced Monday at a city hall press conference. Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe praised it as the first of its kind in Maine, one he’d like to see replicated throughout the state and country. He intends to promote it as a pilot program.

The program is the idea of Ashley Morgan, 16, and other teens who serve on the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council.

Wearing blue shirts with the UBUL logo, Lewiston High students Morgan, Danielle Taylor and Tim Stretton, 15, talked about drinking to eighth-graders during Lewiston Middle School health classes Monday.

Today, Veronica Irish, Allyson Beaucage, 17, and Stretton will give alcohol talks to more health classes. That will continue until all eighth-graders have heard the presentation.

Underage drinking is a problem, and transitioning from eighth grade to high school is tough, Morgan said. “It’s important for youth to connect with youth. … We figured the best way to do this would be to go into the classrooms and talk to the kids, ask them questions, and give them our take on it.”

In the classes, high schoolers show a video they made where Lewiston businessman Nick Knowlton talks about the pain of his nephew being killed from a drunken driver. The video then shows high school students interviewing other students about what they’ve seen and experienced surrounding drinking. The video is followed by discussions, questions and answers.

What the high school students are doing “is wonderful,” Rowe said, calling them leaders in changing the underage drinking culture.

“I see a lot of initiatives of young people, but this is one of the best I’ve seen since I’ve been attorney general. Nobody told these young people to do this. They came up with the idea and said, ‘We want to talk to young people about problems associated with drinking alcohol.'”

Teens who drink lose control of their judgment, their ability to think clearly, are more likely to suffer from car crashes or assaults, and suffer intellectually. “Alcohol kills brain cells, particularly among adolescents,” Rowe said. But it’s often tough for adults to deliver that message. “These young people have the credibility that we adults don’t,” Rowe said. “They look up to you. They listen to you. They hear you. It’s so important.”

Most middle and high school students don’t use alcohol, “but somehow the myth is, ‘If you want to be cool you need to drink,'” he said. Looking at the Lewiston students wearing the blue shirts, Rowe said, “These kids are cool kids. They’re in the majority. They’re standing up and being a witness for that.”

As part of health class, eighth-graders are assigned to create anti-underage drinking public service announcements on their laptops. After the announcements have been created, the high school students will go back to the middle school to review the ads, and pick the best three.

Northeast Bank is sponsoring the UBUL project, providing money for supplies. Calling it worthy, bank President James Delamater said, “I don’t think any of us would have to look far to think of heartache” caused by alcohol abuse.