{"id":82644,"date":"2015-03-19T11:15:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T18:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/press-release\/underage-drinking-in-koreatown-is-it-a-problem\/"},"modified":"2015-03-19T11:15:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T18:15:39","slug":"underage-drinking-in-koreatown-is-it-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"press-release","link":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/press-release\/underage-drinking-in-koreatown-is-it-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Underage Drinking in Koreatown –Is it a Problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by STEVE HAN | @steve_han<\/a>
\nsteve@iamkoream.com
\nReprinted with permission from KoreAm<\/em><\/p>\n

Our living room wasn\u2019t very big. It was just spacious\u00a0<\/span>enough for a 16-inch analog television and a couch, but in that\u00a0small space, my father also kept a pair of wooden display cases\u00a0to house some of his most prized possessions: a collection of\u00a0imported spirits. Even as he maintained an after-work ritual of\u00a0drinking inexpensive soju on a nightly basis, he saved those\u00a0bottles behind the glass for very special occasions, such as\u00a0holiday gatherings or when guests visited our home.<\/p>\n

When my father offered me a sip of his whisky for the\u00a0first time when I was 10, I felt like it was a rite of passage, as if\u00a0he were ushering me into manhood. Years later, when I was a\u00a0high school student and my father was visiting me in L.A. (by\u00a0that time, he was living and working in Korea), I remember\u00a0him inviting me to do shots of soju with him after dinner. By\u00a0that point, I think he assumed that I regularly drank with my\u00a0friends, even though I was just a teenager.<\/p>\n

My early exposure to drinking alcohol is probably familiar\u00a0to many Korean Americans, who, starting at a young age, often\u00a0witness how much alcohol is valued, celebrated and considered a\u00a0key part of socializing and enjoyment with friends and family\u2014or even bonding with one\u2019s dad. For an ethnic community known\u00a0to stigmatize issues ranging from mental health to cancer, there\u00a0seems to be a remarkably casual attitude and permissiveness\u00a0toward exposing young people to this culture of drinking, even\u00a0excessive drinking.<\/p>\n

Throughout his childhood, Sam Joo, a second-generation\u00a0Korean American who grew up in the San Fernando Valley suburbs\u00a0of Los Angeles, remembers attending family parties where\u00a0\u201cthere was always a lot of drinking going on,\u201d even though there\u00a0were children ranging from ages 9 to 11 present. The kids weren\u2019t\u00a0drinking the liquor, but still, Joo said, \u201cYou observe this, and\u00a0you [as a child] equate that as normal, acceptable behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Joo is well aware of the impact this kind of\u00a0permissive, often encouraging, attitude toward alcohol consumption\u00a0can have on young people, its harmful effects lasting well\u00a0beyond their adolescent years. A former residential counselor\u00a0and prevention specialist at the Asian American Drug Abuse\u00a0Program (AADAP), he now oversees efforts to stem underage\u00a0drinking at the Koreatown Youth and Community Center\u00a0(KYCC), where he serves as the director of Children and Family\u00a0Services. At the Los Angeles-based nonprofit, he and his colleagues\u00a0are trying to send a far different message about alcohol consumption\u00a0than what many Korean Americans may have learned in\u00a0their youth: this celebrated culture of drinking isn\u2019t \u201cnormal,\u00a0acceptable behavior,\u201d and neither is underage drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlcohol is almost a gateway,\u201d said Joo. \u201cEven though\u00a0drug addicts are addicted to cocaine and heroin, consuming alcohol\u00a0from an earlier age is a very big part of their addictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his days working at AADAP, which provides treatment\u00a0and rehabilitation for individuals struggling with substance\u00a0abuse, Joo recalled meeting an 18-year-old Korean\u00a0American client who was addicted to cocaine and crack. \u201cHe\u00a0began ditching classes in junior high, and he would go over to\u00a0his friend\u2019s house [to drink],\u201d described Joo. \u201cHe told me that\u00a0it all started with drinking beer. Then he moved on to hard\u00a0liquor, and it eventually led to drug use. Later on, he even had a\u00a0brand new car, but he ended up selling it for $500 for drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

With real-life examples like these, it\u2019s no wonder the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies underage\u00a0drinking as a major public health problem. More so than tobacco\u00a0and illicit drugs, alcohol is the most commonly used and abused\u00a0drug among youth in the United States. Studies show that people\u00a0between the ages of 12 to 20 drink 11 percent of all alcohol\u00a0consumed in the United States, but that 90 percent of this alcohol\u00a0is consumed in the form of binge drinking, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n

A 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, based on statistics\u00a0collected by the CDC, state and local agencies, found that 35\u00a0percent of high school students drank alcohol in the past 30 days,\u00a021 percent binge drank (five or more drinks in one sitting),\u00a022 percent rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol,\u00a0and 10 percent drove after drinking. Again, the effects can be\u00a0long-lasting, as with the case Joo mentioned. Youth who start\u00a0drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to develop alcohol\u00a0dependence or abuse later in life than those who begin\u00a0drinking at or after age 21, says the CDC. It is well-documented\u00a0that underage drinking also increases the risk of physical and\u00a0sexual assault, and is also associated with overall risky sexual\u00a0behavior, academic failure and smoking.<\/p>\n

In addition, because there are so many physical and developmental\u00a0changes occurring during adolescence, underage\u00a0drinking can lead to brain shrinkage, stagnant formation of\u00a0connections between nerve cells and even a prominent loss of\u00a0existing connections in the brain, according to researcher Linda\u00a0Patia Spear, who specializes in alcohol\u2019s effects on adolescents\u00a0at Binghamton University.<\/p>\n

The consequences can also be deadly. Every year, an estimated\u00a05,000 people under the age of 21 die from alcohol-related\u00a0car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning and other\u00a0injuries, including falls, burns and drowning, according to the\u00a0National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite all of these dangers, Korean American community\u00a0advocates say that, unfortunately, parents, who should\u00a0be the messengers and disciplinarians on this issue, are often\u00a0part of the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have families come in for counseling services, and if a\u00a0situation involves the child drinking alcohol, a lot of the parents\u00a0didn\u2019t seem as upset, compared to times when the situation\u00a0involved their kids doing poorly at school,\u201d said Joo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the perception of smoking has slightly changed\u00a0[in the Korean American community]. I think there\u2019s a recognition\u00a0that \u2018I don\u2019t want my kids to smoke,\u2019\u201d he added. \u201cBut I\u00a0don\u2019t think drinking has caught up to that yet. I think that it\u2019s\u00a0still much more acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edith Bedolla, who counsels mostly Korean and Latino\u00a0parents and teens about underage drinking at KYCC, said she\u2019s\u00a0encountered many parents who didn\u2019t even know the legal age\u00a0for drinking in the U.S. is 21. \u201cParents often think, \u2018Well,\u00a0where I come from, whether it\u2019s Korea or Mexico, the legal\u00a0age for drinking is 18, so here, I let my child drink because\u00a0they\u2019re under my supervision,\u2019\u201d said Bedolla.<\/p>\n

One of her roles is to teach youth skills to better communicate\u00a0with their parents, so they can talk about issues like pressures\u00a0to drink with friends. But she said it\u2019s difficult\u00a0when the parents don\u2019t find underage drinking a \u00a0problem\u2014or tend to drink quite a bit themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we give them information about alcohol, we teach\u00a0them how to communicate with their parents, and we model the\u00a0behavior so that they\u2019re comfortable talking to them,\u201d Bedolla\u00a0explained. \u201c[But] if their parents drink, it\u2019s going to stop them\u00a0from approaching them. It\u2019s confusing to them. They\u2019re not\u00a0sure what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s almost common knowledge that a number of\u00a0Korean American adults\u2014not unlike their counterparts in\u00a0South Korea\u2014have a problem with drinking excessive amounts\u00a0of alcohol (the binge drinking rate for Korean Americans is\u00a025.9 percent, while it\u2019s only 16.2 percent for the general U.S.\u00a0population, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health\u00a0and Services Administrations, or SAMHSA), various studies\u00a0also indicate that an alarmingly high number of Korean American\u00a0youth are drinking before their legal age.<\/p>\n

In a recent survey of 1,043 college students under age 21,\u00a0conducted by AADAP, nearly a quarter of Asian Americans\u00a0said that they had considered themselves \u201cdrunk\u201d more than\u00a0three times in the past month, compared with only 12 percent of\u00a0all surveyed California students. Among those Asian American\u00a0students, Korean Americans represented the largest ethnic\u00a0majority in the pool, with 35 percent of them consuming six or\u00a0more drinks in one sitting. Filipinos, at 24 percent, were second.<\/p>\n

In another study, the California-based Alcohol Research\u00a0Group, an international organization that examines alcohol-related\u00a0behaviors, more than a quarter of the 202 Korean American\u00a0adolescents surveyed in Southern California in 2009 said\u00a0that up to 10 of their friends drank alcohol in various settings,\u00a0including at home with friends and family or at parties. Only 8\u00a0percent said that none of their friends drank. Most of the respondents\u00a0were aged 13 to 17.<\/p>\n

Kyeyoung Park, an anthropology and Asian American\u00a0studies professor at UCLA, said that she\u2019s noticed the exposure\u00a0of Korean American children to alcohol is quite \u201cblatant,\u201d not\u00a0only in the home, but in many public venues\u2014from Koreatown\u00a0parades, featuring multiple alcohol sponsor logos, to the neighborhood\u00a0Korean grocery store.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go to a Korean supermarket in Koreatown,\u00a0alcohol is prominently displayed in the middle [aisle],\u201d said\u00a0Park. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case in other supermarkets.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, in fact, it\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s a mere coincidence that\u00a0the Koreatown district of Los Angeles, the densest neighborhood\u00a0in L.A. County with a population per square mile of\u00a042,611, is home to many after-hours drinking establishments\u00a0that often stay clandestinely open past California\u2019s 2 a.m. curfew\u00a0on alcohol sales. The central area of Koreatown, represented by\u00a0zip code 90005, has 104 active on- and off-sale retailers (including\u00a0restaurants, bars, grocery stores and liquor stores) with\u00a0liquor licenses, according to data on the Alcohol and Beverage\u00a0Control\u2019s website. That\u2019s more than any other district in\u00a0L.A. County represented by one zip code, according to\u00a0the regulatory body.<\/p>\n

\u201cKoreatown is known as the destination to go drink,\u201d said\u00a0KYCC\u2019s Joo.<\/p>\n

Kids know this, too. They also know which Koreatown\u00a0liquor stores sell alcoholic beverages to underage drinkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids have told me directly, \u2018Yes, it is very easy to get alcohol\u00a0in Koreatown,\u2019\u201d said Carol Lee, a community organizer\u00a0at KYCC. She has conducted several focus groups about alcohol\u00a0use among Korean American youth between ages 16 and\u00a018. \u201cThey knew all the liquor stores that sell to minors. They\u00a0knew it all by word of mouth,\u201d she continued. \u201cI even learned\u00a0that some liquor stores charge more, like an extra five or 10\u00a0dollars, when minors come in to buy alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBuying alcohol is really easy,\u201d affirmed Jeff Joo (no relation\u00a0to KYCC\u2019s Sam Joo), a 20-year-old Korean American student\u00a0at Santa Monica College, whose family immigrated to the U.S.\u00a0from South Korea when he was 9. He agreed to be interviewed\u00a0alongside his father, James Joo. \u201cEven when I was in high\u00a0school, I either had friends who had beer or even hard liquor at\u00a0home because their parents don\u2019t really mind them drinking, or\u00a0we would just buy the drinks at stores that don\u2019t check IDs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though there\u2019s been a greater crackdown in recent years\u00a0on liquor stores that sell alcohol to minors, a number of studies\u00a0show that many Korean American youth are still accessing it\u00a0mostly at stores and bars, in addition to their homes. A 2010\u00a0survey conducted by UCLA\u2019s Department of Statistics showed\u00a0that 52 percent of the 233 Korean American participants between\u00a0the ages 12 and 20 said that they got their alcohol by directly\u00a0purchasing it from stores. That figure is significantly\u00a0higher than the same survey\u2019s Latino participants, 30.9 percent\u00a0of whom answered that they buy alcohol from stores.<\/p>\n

In an effort to curtail alcohol sales to underage drinkers,\u00a0KYCC began a program called Card Under 35 in 2012. The\u00a0staff came up with the name because they suspected many\u00a0liquor stores in Koreatown are guilty of not checking IDs before\u00a0selling to minors. The program\u2019s aim is to encourage businesses\u00a0to card anyone who looks younger than 35.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany teens nowadays actually look older than their age,\u00a0so we thought 35 was the reasonable age to make sure that the\u00a0person isn\u2019t under 21,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Funded by the Department of Public Health, Card Under\u00a035 sends out teams of KYCC\u2019s organizers, including Lee, to pay\u00a0weekly visits to liquor stores in Koreatown, about 60 percent of\u00a0which are owned by Korean immigrants. Once the business\u00a0owners agree to become a part of the program, KYCC organizers\u00a0then spend six weeks training them and providing various\u00a0signage, such as \u201cright to refuse\u201d signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt that if liquor stores can card effectively, they\u00a0would be able to identify underage drinkers at the forefront,\u201d\u00a0said Sam Joo, who oversees the program. \u201cThen, the chances\u00a0of alcohol getting into the hands of minors will be limited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said that only about 20 percent of the 100 liquor stores\u00a0she has visited this year have been receptive and are actively\u00a0taking part in Card Under 35. Still, volunteers aren\u2019t giving up, and they have plans to expand the program to include bars and\u00a0restaurants in Koreatown.<\/p>\n

To be fair, even well-intentioned business owners say that\u00a0it\u2019s difficult for them to ensure that what they sell stays out of\u00a0the hands of underage drinkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do what we can,\u201d said Connie Kong, who has been\u00a0running Saki Liquor on South L.A.\u2019s Jefferson Boulevard for\u00a0more than two decades. \u201cObviously, we check their IDs and\u00a0make sure people who buy alcohol are over 21, but there\u2019s not\u00a0much businesses can do besides that. There\u2019s always a chance\u00a0that a customer is using a fake ID or maybe they\u2019re even buying\u00a0alcohol for their younger friends. There\u2019s not much I can do\u00a0once those alcoholic beverages leave my store.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why, community advocates say, efforts like\u00a0Card Under 35 also need to be matched by education for both\u00a0youth and their parents, who simply may not recognize the\u00a0long-term dangers of underage drinking.\u00a0James Joo said that, as a parent, he wants to trust his child\u00a0as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I wouldn\u2019t mind if my son is having a few\u00a0drinks with his friends, unless he overdoes it,\u201d said the elder Joo\u00a0in Korean. \u201cAs long as it\u2019s not to a point where he\u2019s hurting\u00a0himself or people around him, it wouldn\u2019t be a huge concern to\u00a0me. It\u2019s not as serious as doing drugs, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

His 20-year-old son Jeff noted that adults tend to think\u00a0young people drink because of peer pressure. \u201cBut I think\u00a0young people drink for the same reason grown-ups drink,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cPeople drink to enjoy being with their friends. Even\u00a0when kids in high school or college drink, I think most of them\u00a0probably drink mainly to have fun, and not so much because\u00a0they\u2019re being pressured to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Joos\u2019 statements seemed to underscore the strong\u00a0social and entertainment aspect of drinking for many in the\u00a0community\u2014and that\u2019s why advocates say there really\u00a0needs to be a fundamental, community-wide cultural shift in\u00a0how alcohol consumption is viewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow, we\u2019ve got to be able to take group camaraderie\u00a0away from this drinking culture [among Koreans]. I think that\u00a0is the biggest thing,\u201d said John Park (no relation to Kyeyoung\u00a0Park), a public health analyst at SAMHSA, a branch of the\u00a0U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that has been\u00a0doing a great deal of prevention and education work about underage\u00a0drinking under the campaign, \u201cTalk. They Hear You.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKoreans have to come to grips with this very serious\u00a0problem and deal with it [as a] community,\u201d Park said.\u00a0\u201cIn the U.S., there\u2019s justified bias against drinking,\u201d noted\u00a0UCLA scholar Kyeyoung Park. \u201cHeavy drinkers or underage\u00a0drinkers are perceived as near-criminals in the American culture.\u00a0It goes against American sensibilities. We should acknowledge\u00a0that drinking isn\u2019t [stigmatized] enough in the Korean culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, however, that \u201cjust depriving people of drinking\u00a0won\u2019t work. We need to develop alternative ways, a cultural\u00a0movement to help people to understand how fun it is to have\u00a0hobbies. You don\u2019t need to drink to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to KYCC\u2019s efforts on the issue, some Korean\u00a0American churches are promoting abstinence from drinking,\u00a0while such L.A. nonprofits as Korean American Family Services\u00a0are organizing forums like the one held August titled \u201cKeep\u00a0Calm and Stop Underage Drinking.\u201d Sam Joo points out that\u00a0there have also been community efforts to reframe the role of\u00a0parents through such initiatives as Father School, which provides\u00a0training retreats to help Korean American men become better\u00a0dads\u2014more available, reliable and compassionate. He thinks this\u00a0kind of education also goes hand in hand with efforts to prevent\u00a0underage drinking.<\/p>\n

Joo compares the community\u2019s anti-underage drinking\u00a0efforts to the anti-smoking campaigns from two decades earlier.\u00a0\u201cNo one thought, ever, that anyone could challenge the tobacco\u00a0industry. About 20 to 25 years ago, if you told smokers, \u2018You\u00a0won\u2019t be able to smoke anywhere else but your home,\u2019 they\u00a0would\u2019ve said you\u2019re crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took that long for that\u00a0public health initiative to take hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI think similar efforts need to happen with alcohol.\u00a0Understanding and talking about alcohol as a detriment\u00a0to achieving success has to be somehow incorporated. It has to\u00a0be mentioned in the articles in the local media, it has to be\u00a0talked about in talk shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This article was produced as a project of The California\u00a0Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, an initiative of the\u00a0<\/strong>USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and was published here<\/a> in the February\/March 2015 issue of KoreAm.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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by STEVE HAN | @steve_han steve@iamkoream.com Reprinted with permission from KoreAm Our living room wasn\u2019t very big. It was just spacious\u00a0enough for a 16-inch analog television and a couch, but …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":80439,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,222,253,256,271,281,299],"tags":[312,314],"class_list":["post-82644","press-release","type-press-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category--ko","category-children-and-families-ko","category-kycc-in-the-news-ko","category-koream-ko","category-news-article-ko","category-prevention-education-ko","category-youth-services-ko","tag-alcohol-advertising-ko","tag-alcohol-justice-ko"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/82644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/82644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}