RALEIGH, N.C. –

North Carolina government leaders are encouraging parents to talk sooner to their children – particularly middle-school students – about the dangers of underage drinking with dramatic new videos and a major push from the governor.

Gov. Pat McCrory, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission Chairman Jim Gardner held a news conference in front of eighth graders at Daniels Middle School in Raleigh to launch the effort. Daniels, by the way, is named for longtime News Observer publisher Josephus Daniels, who did not drink.

The state leaders urged parents to talk to their children about underage drinking and unveiled a website Wednesday outlining the negative results of youth drinking called www.talkitoutnc.org . The site gives tips to parents on how to speak plainly to kids about why underage drinking is dangerous.

It is illegal in North Carolina to drink under the age of 21.

An ABC Commission initiative surveyed North Carolina students and parents over the summer. It found more than one-third of eighth-graders had drunk alcohol at least once.

Jim Gardner, head of the ABC Commission, said the average age that children begin drinking is 13.9 years of age.

There will be two television ads airing on the topic, along with social media and public events across the state.

One shows a mother dressing up her daughter and putting on earrings that, the mother said, belonged to the girl’s grandmother. The camera then pulls away, and the daughter is in a casket.

That stunning image drew a gasp from the crowd of eighth graders.

“I think the gasps in the audience showed it works,” McCrory said later.

Gardner said that as the leaders considered how to attack the problem with advertisements, they realized they had to be dramatic to get the attention of students.

“This is going to be a hard-hitting campaign,” Gardner said.

Gardner said the campaign would have an initial cost of $2.5 million, which will come from ABC funding. The ABC Commission gets its revenue from the profits from the sale of alcohol, which is regulated by the state.

McCrory said he wanted to attack a culture in which drinking was acceptable and even a “right of passage.” He said as a youth he would sneak out and drink Boone’s Farm wine, but that he realizes now how dangerous that could be.

“It was happening during my generation, drinking at 13 and 14, including myself,” McCrory said. “We would try to raid my parents’ liquor cabinet and go out to the woods with Boone’s Farm (wine) and think it was just a rite of passage.”

McCrory, 58, has consistently made the problems with underage drinking a priority as a public official. He said he first became concerned about the issue when he was mayor of Charlotte, and he saw the costs to society on a personal and societal level.

“When I became governor, I saw it wasn’t related to just Charlotte,” he said.

McCrory called the problems with underage drinking “one of the critical issues of our society. A lot of kids, when they start drinking, they don’t survive.”

He also said many who start drinking early fall prey to addiction, which has a major impact on their lives.

“It’s a very, very difficult disease to get out of,” McCrory said. “And as a society, the cost is tremendous.”

McCrory said he believes the problems with drinking cost the state well more than $1 billion per year. That’s a huge cost for a state with an annual budget of around $20 billion.

The website will include a video with four families talking about tragic situations with underage drinking. One mother, Peggy Bennett of Charlotte, appears in the video with her son, Josh, who was severely injured in a crash while drinking and driving in 2001. Josh Bennett was at the event and now speaks with a severe handicap.

At a news conference afterward, Josh said, “Kids, don’t drink and drive. It’s no good.”

RELATED LINKS

• How NC parents can talk to their children about underage drinking

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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