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FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS JULY 9, 2014 | 11
Montana and Alcohol – an Abusive Relationship
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The statistics behind Montana’s alcohol problem
By XAVIER FLORY of the Beacon
A drive past the numerous saloons
and bars that line city streets across the state will tell you that Montanans enjoy their alcohol. Montana has the second- highest ratio of bars to people in the U.S., and a new study from the Center for Dis- ease Control and Prevention shows the state also leads the nation in alcohol abuse.
According to the study, which was carried out between 2006 and 2010 and released in June, Montana ranks third in age-adjusted alcohol-attributable deaths (AAD) per 100,000 citizens, be- hind only New Mexico and Alaska.
Michael Cummins, the executive director at the Flathead Valley Chemi- cal Dependency Clinic, said the drink- ing problem in Montana is reflective of a broader issue sweeping the rest of the country.
“Most people who drink don’t have a problem,” but the large number of drink- ers combined with a lenient culture make alcohol our most abused drug, Cummins said. In Montana, on aver- age 13.2 percent of all deaths for people between the ages of 20 and 64 can be linked to alcohol. In a state that only reached 1 million inhabitants in 2011, an average of 8,713 people suffer alcohol-re- lated deaths every year.
These numbers are also borne out by crash fatality statistics from the Mon- tana Highway Patrol. From Jan. 1 to June 30, 2014, of the 62 crashes involv- ing fatalities, 21 were related to alcohol. This is a 16 percent increase over the same time period last year, when 18 out of 89 fatal crashes involved alcohol.
Nonetheless, Flathead County Sher- iff Chuck Curry says the county has made significant progress in the last de- cade. According to Curry, the improve- ment is due to better detection of drunk- en driving offenders by law enforcement and a zero tolerance policy.
“It’s no longer socially acceptable to drink and drive... In the past, we might go easy on a first time offender, but now, if you drink and drive, you’re going to jail,” Curry said.
Drinking is not only deadly, but cost- ly. The CDCP study estimates that ex- cessive drinking costs the U.S. $223.5 billion a year. Although the health care costs of treating people with alcohol-in- duced ailments is enormous, the cost in lost life is perhaps even larger. The study estimates that the potential annual loss of life in years for Montana is 133,084.
As the sheriff says, enforcement is just one part of the puzzle. Montana laws have historically been more lenient when it comes to drunken driving, and although they have been tightened in recent years, they are still relaxed com- pared to those of other states.
Proprietors caught selling alcohol to a minor are fined a scant $250, and a sales license is revoked only after four such offenses. As Cummins says, “Mon- tana has been a little behind the rest of the country,” in terms of alcohol en- forcement. For example, only a decade ago you could still drive in Montana with an open beer in your hand.
Drinking culture is the last and per- haps most important part of the puzzle, experts say. In general, people in colder, more northern states drink more than their southern compatriots. According to a study completed by the Beer In- stitute, North Dakota drank the most beer per capita in 2012, followed by New Hampshire. Montana was third with a per-capita consumption of 41 gallons, a figure that is even higher when you
subtract children and other people who don’t drink. Cummins, meanwhile, cites the isolation, lack of resources, and “live hard, play hard” mentality that make many people in frontier states drink heavily.
Montana also has an underage drinking problem, spurred by a mental- ity that sees alcohol as a rite of passage, according to Cummins. People who drink before the age of 15 are four to six times more likely to develop alcohol-re- lated diseases than those who wait until 21 to start drinking. In 2009, almost 500 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 20 were admitted for alcohol treatment in the state, and more than 30 percent of Montana high school students reported consuming five or more drinks in a sin- gle sitting in the previous 30 days.
“We deal with underage drinkers ev- ery day,” Curry said. One of the ways the county is trying to cope with the prob- lem is through the Alcohol Enforcement Taskforce, a multi-agency initiative to reduce underage drinking. Another ac- tive group in the county is the STOP co- alition, which is also focused on under- age drinking and includes organizations ranging from Glacier National Park to Fun Beverage Inc. to the Flathead Sui- cide Prevention Center. They seek to re- duce the availability of alcohol to minors and spread the word about the dangers of underage drinking.
As Cummins explains, “there is not a typical case. Alcohol affects people in different ways,” and people who occa- sionally abuse alcohol are different from those who are addicted to it. Recogniz- ing this, and setting up a system that makes drinkers accountable for their actions while providing them with re- sources for rehabilitation, are the keys to making Montana’s deadliest pastime safe again.
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Somers Man Sentenced in 2013 Fourth of July Beating
By BEACON STAFF
A Somers man was sentenced in Flathead County District Court last week for his role in last summer’s road rage assault on the Fourth of July in Ferndale.
Gaige Christopher Mower, 21, was given a six-month sus- pended sentence, a $500 fine and ordered to do 50 hours of com- munity service for beating Antonio Valencia in the Ferndale Market parking lot on July 4, 2013. Mower will also have to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Mower was one of three men who followed Valencia in a green Subaru last Independence Day and then beat him in front of a small group of people. Valencia told investigators that the Suba- ru had been tailgating him, and that he pulled into the parking
lot at the Ferndale Market in an attempt to get away from them. Mower was found guilty of misdemeanor assault at a jury trial earlier this year. He was initially charged with felony aggravated assault, but was later acquitted of that charge.
“I’m not proud of what I did, but it happened,” Mower said during his sentencing hearing before District Judge Ted O. Lym- pus. “I did what I did.”
Ryan Horn, one of the other two men charged in the July 4 beating, was given a six-month suspended sentence in January after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault. Andrew Taylor Nelson, the third assailant who beat Valencia with a golf club un- til it broke, pleaded guilty to felony assault with a weapon earlier this year and will be sentenced later this month.