Bill Vasicek, Cindy Janssen and others, Grand Forks, letter: Yes, GF can change binge-drinking culture

GRAND FORKS — Thank you to all who attended the Grand Forks Alcohol and Other Drugs Town Hall meeting on Oct. 22.

It was wonderful to have more than 100 people attend to share ideas and support efforts to promote healthy choices regarding alcohol and other drugs.

This event underscored the idea that we all have an influence in reducing the negative impacts of alcohol and other drug abuse.

Grand Forks has the potential to establish a great reputation as a healthy community with a high quality of life. We are making strides and most of our residents are making healthy choices, but North Dakota still leads the nation in binge drinking for people 12 and older, and we need to do more to change that culture.

Grand Forks can be proud of our community’s efforts to mandate training for alcohol servers. There are many other policy ideas that were shared at the meeting that could have a positive impact. These include a “social host” ordinance to hold people accountable if they knowingly provide alcohol to those underage; establishing price floors for alcohol to discourage excessive drinking; providing law enforcement with better tools and resources to respond more quickly and effectively and establishing an alcohol commission.

Doing more to create and promote alcohol-free activities, enabling K-12 and college students to be a voice for change and teaching people what it means to drink responsibly also were suggested. ParentsLead.org was recommended as a resource.

Great ideas were shared and in order to move forward, more resources will be needed. This community needs a coordinator for substance abuse prevention.

With our state, we need to invest in alcohol prevention and other drug prevention if we wish to see positive results.

If we work together, we can change the binge-drinking culture to one in which alcohol is used in responsible, safe and legal ways.

Bill Vasicek

Cindy Janssen

Vasicek is community safety coordinator at Altru Health System. Janssen is a board members of the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Grand Forks.

This letter also was signed by 10 other civic leaders who are part of the effort to promote healthy choices regarding alcohol and other drugs.

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