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Community Corner

Norcross Compliance Check Results- 3rd Quarter

Underage drinking is a serious issue and can result in risky behavior, car crashes, memory loss, sexual assault, alcohol poisoning, legal problems and death.

One way that GUIDE, Inc. (Gwinnett United in Drug Education) addresses underage drinking in our community is reducing teen access to retail alcohol by partnering with the Gwinnett County Police Department to conduct routine compliance check sweeps.

Compliance checks make sure that alcohol establishments and their employees are properly checking IDs of anyone who is buying and/or being served alcohol, preventing sales of alcohol to those under 21. When alcohol retailers are in compliance, it reduces access to alcohol and serves as a reminder to adults that providing alcohol to underage youth is illegal. Research shows that “shifting norms and reducing access to alcohol impacts the rates of high-risk drinking in addition to related problems among youth and adults” (Health Community Consortium, 2006). 

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To conduct the compliance checks, youth under 21 serve as decoys and order an alcoholic drink at a restaurant or attempt to buy alcohol at a licensed store. In the past three months, April–June, 13 establishments were checked in Norcross. The compliance rate during this time was 92%, which means that 1 out of 13 retailers sold alcohol to the underage decoy.

Thank you to ALL of the following businesses that practiced responsible alcohol sales and did NOT sell alcohol to the underage decoy:

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Chevron, 6070 S. Norcross Tucker Rd, Norcross

Chevron Quick Mart, 6780 Dawson Blvd, Norcross

Cho’s Texaco Food Mart, 6360 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Norcross

Citgo, 4510 Buford Hwy, Norcross

Friendly Shop Citgo, 4970 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Norcross

Happy Shop, 6289 S. Norcross Tucker Rd, Norcross

Little Farm #2, 6486 Buford Hwy, Norcross

Lupita’s Mexican Restaurant, 2040 Beaver Ruin Rd, Norcross

Phillips 66, 5402 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Norcross

Shell Food Mart, 4840 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Norcross

Shell Food Mart, 5476 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Norcross

Walmart, 4975 Jimmy Carter Blvd, Norcross

It is their commitment to training of their employees and their policies that prevented the underage sales of alcohol.  

We commend YOU. Keep up the great work!

GUIDE, Inc. (Gwinnett United in Drug Education) and Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human services collaborate with Gwinnett County Police Department in these prevention activities because we care about young people in our community and want to keep them safe and healthy.

GUIDE, Inc. is a substance abuse prevention agency serving Gwinnett County since 1986. To find out more about us, please connect with us at guidegti.wordpress.com.

References:

Health Community Consortium. (2006). An issue briefing: The Petaluma social host ordinance. Petaluma Coalition to Prevent Underage & High-Risk Drinking, 1(2). Retrieved from http://marylandcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SHO_Issue_Brief_71-28-06_final-3.pdf

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