preventionpipeline

Source: Prevention Pipeline, Jul/Aug 1998

This article has been slightly adjusted for web publishing. For information about Prevention Pipeline, CSAP's bimonthly publication, visit the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Other Drug Information at www.health.org

Safe Crossing

	eavy drinking by teen-agers crossing the border from
Southern California into Mexico had been viewed for years as an intractable fact of life. The border was easy to cross. The drinking age in Mexico is 18 and even then many bars along Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana would give young customers the benefit of the doubt.
But the facts of life can be changed. At the 1998 Spring Break -- a high point for border crossing by kids of high school and college age -- the effects of a prevention effort called Operation Safe Crossing had a visible impact on the scene.
U.S. teen-agers under 18 seeking to enter Mexico at the San Diego border crossing were turned back by the hundreds.
Checking IDs
There is a law, after all, requiring parental permission for a minor to leave the country. In Tijuana, inspectors patrolled the bars making ID checks. Some of the young people staggering back across the border in the wee small hours didn't make it to their cars parked on the

Vibe-Add (2) copy.jpg (12023 bytes)

Barkers in Tijuana, entice pedestrians to enter their nightclub for cheap drinks.

U.S. side. They wound up in police custody instead.

In all, it was a Spring Break with less risk to celebrating students and an example of a new spirit of bi-national cooperation to reduce alcohol and drug problems along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Surveying the Problem

Operation Safe Crossing springs from research conducted by the Institute for Health Advocacy in San Diego. Teams of interviewers intercepted pedestrians and motorists between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. at what is the

busiest crossing point anywhere along the 2,000-mile U.S-Mexican border.

From questionnaires and voluntary breath tests, the survey revealed the extent of the border drinking problem and its implications for health and safety.

The survey indicated that among the 9,000 young people visiting Tijuana on a typical party night, more than 1,000 were legally drunk, with blood alcohol levels of .08 or above, when they returned across the border.

Drinking levels were highest on Friday and Saturday nights, and on Wednesday nights advertised as "college nights" when many Tijuana bars offer such specials as "all you can drink" for $5. Most of the underage drinkers were returning from Mexico as pedestrians but were climbing into cars on the U.S. side of the border to drive home.

"People knew about the problem, but until now, no one knew the magnitude of it," said James Baker, executive director of IHA. "These kids could get into a crash at 4 in the morning and get killed."

Jul/Aug 1998 31

With support from San Diego County Alcohol and Drug Services, IHA helped organize a Border Drinking Task Force bringing together law enforcement agencies, colleges and universities, and concerned organizations and individuals for a concerted attack on the problem. The Task Force also enlisted help on the Mexican side of the border, where many business and civic leaders in Tijuana recognize the harm done to their city's reputation by the no-holds-barred attitude toward youthful drinking along Avenida Revolucion.

Positive Results

Spring Break 1998 saw the results. On college campuses there were billboards and posters with a new kind of slogan: "Major in partying and you'll minor in intelligence...Do the smart thing, party without regrets." San Diego police were at the border to check the age of young people seeking to cross into Mexico. Those under 21 were turned back if they couldn't produce authenticated permission from their parents to cross the border.

The California State Alcoholic Beverage Control agency had helped prepare the way for a new atmosphere

in Tijuana. It provided training to inspectors in how to spot phony ID cards that San Diego teenagers may use to try to get into Tijuana bars. On the busy nights of Spring Break, beefed up police patrols moved up and down the noisy Avenida to check IDs and spot drunk drivers.

Low price alcoholic beverages in Tijuana encourage binge drinking, especially amoung young patrons.

Inspectors closed one bar for selling alcohol to minors. Another was fined for serving alcohol to an inebriated customer. Fifty U.S. youths were arrested for street fighting or causing public disturbances. As the night wore on, police on the U.S. side began detaining intoxicated pedestrians and drivers as they returned from Mexico.

Long-Term Results

The determination to make a change in the border-drinking scene generated momentum that continued after Spring Break was over.

At Rosarito Beach, a city south of Tijuana, the seven-member city council voted unanimously to endorse raising the drinking age in their state of Baja California from 18 to 21.

"The big problem we have here are people who are 18 to 20," said Mayor Hugo Torres Chabert. "They can legally drink here, but they're not prepared to do so emotionally, physically or in any other way." A state government in Mexico has the power to raise its drinking age above the 18 years now prevailing throughout the country.

Clamping down on youthful drinking also appeals to many Tijuana business owners who cater to a different kind of visitor from the United States -- families and shoppers. The Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that daytime family visitors spend an average of $37 per person in their city while night visitors attracted mainly to bars spend an average of $8. The Border Drinking Task Force is working with the bureau on an effort to convince bar owners that cleaning up their act promises more profit in the long run than relying on high-volume alcohol sales to young people.

32 Prevention Pipeline

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