Drinking enforcement training for agencies

by Nick Delgado

Guam - The Department of Youth Affairs is working to keep more youth from ending up in their facility, and their starting by preventing teens from consuming alcohol. DYA director Adonis Mendiola hosted two trainers from the Underage Drinking Enforcement Center out of Maryland to provide training for several agencies like the Department of Public Health to raise the awareness about an alarming increase in alcohol consumption by individuals who are underage.

Senior program manager Rj Elrick said, "We've covered things like identifying the individual as being of age or underage through the use of identification, how to detect a fake ID or if identifications been altered or manipulated to misrepresent the person's age." And program director Mary Gordon added, "The seven folks that we've trained are now trainers, so they will go and work with different retailers in terms of showing them different strategies of how to be effective."

The program was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Authorities this past weekend found 42 establishments selling alcohol to underage drinkers.