AUGUSTA – Lewiston High School seniors Ally Beaucage and Tim Stretton say they’ve been pressured time and time again to start drinking, especially at school dances and sporting events.

Both officers in the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council, they’ve taken on a kids-teaching-kids initiative to reduce the appeal of underage drinking – U Booze, U Looze.

While they’re spreading their message in Androscoggin County, the office of acting U.S. Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu is determined to send out a similar message. On Tuesday, his office released a report stating that underage drinking is at an all-time high.

Beaucage and Stretton spoke at a State House news conference Tuesday with several state officials and physicians in a call to action. Lewiston Mayor Laurent Gilbert attended to support the two students.

Kim Johnson, director of the state Office of Substance Abuse, said the local plan is simple: reduce the appeal of alcohol and decrease its availability.

Beaucage said students her age get alcohol from a variety of sources: stealing it from parents, having older siblings or parents buy it for them, or by using fake identification.

“People don’t realize how easy it is for kids to get alcohol,” she said.

Parts of their campaign include crafting decals for businesses to put in windows promising to not display alcohol ads that deliberately target youth.

The youth advisory council also has made a video highlighting the dangers of drinking. Student leaders are speaking to middle school students, and are hosting a contest for them to create their own videos.

“It means a lot to them to hear from older kids that you don’t have to drink to fit in,” Beaucage said.

While many target middle school students in campaigns, Johnson said education should start earlier – in fourth or fifth grade.

Maine Public Health Director Dr. Dora Anne Mills displayed a diagram during Tuesday’s conference showing how alcohol use decreases brain activity in young people.

She said teen smoking has dramatically decreased in the past decade, something she attributes to anti-smoking campaigns, but teen drinking has stayed at the same level. About 50 percent of Maine’s high school students are drinking, she said.

The council started the anti-drinking campaign because it needed a project, Beaucage said, and having it coincide with the surgeon general’s report was simply convenient timing.

Council leaders hope to reach kids before they are tempted to drink.

“I hope they think twice,” Beaucage said.

Underage drinking in Androscoggin County, according to a 2006 survey:

• 1,780 students in grades six to 12 reported drinking in the past 30 days

• 874 students in grades six to 12 reported binge drinking – having five drinks or more – in the past two weeks

Source: Project Unite!