New Moorpark Group Hopes to Curb Teens’ Access to Alcohol, Drugs

MOORPARK — For teenagers, access to alcohol or drugs can be a simple thing--a $20 bill slipped to an adult walking into a liquor store, an acquaintance who sells dope, an apathetic parent with a well-stocked wet bar.

But a recently formed coalition of Moorpark community organizations and residents wants to cut off such easy access.

The coalition, which has held only a few meetings and does not yet have a name, has received a $5,000 grant from Oxnard-based El Concilio del Condado de Ventura to brainstorm ways to cut substance abuse by teens in Moorpark. More specifically, coalition members will address the circumstances under which teens obtain drugs and alcohol, a break from traditional drug abuse-prevention programs that focus on teaching youths to “Just Say ‘No.’ ”

“We don’t put our heads in the sand and say, ‘No kids in Moorpark are going to drink or use drugs.’ We look at the ways they get access,” said coalition member Marilyn Green, special projects coordinator for the Moorpark Unified School District.

The group is one of several across Ventura County trying to develop such programs. El Concilio has given grants to fledgling coalitions in Oxnard, Santa Paula and Thousand Oaks. And the county’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs is now taking applications for its own series of $5,000 grants.

The grants from the county and El Concilio are designed to give interested community groups enough money to research ways to deal with drug and alcohol problems in their cities. And in December, those groups can apply to the county department for another grant--this time for as much as $50,000--to implement their ideas.

Sharon O’Hara, community services coordinator with the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, said by awarding grants the county hopes to give individual communities more of the responsibility and resources for fighting underage substance abuse.

“We’re really thrilled about putting the money back in the hands of the communities that know what the problems are,” O’Hara said.

Although coalition members say teen substance abuse is not a major problem in Moorpark, it is a concern.

“We see teenagers with alcohol on a regular basis, especially on Friday or Saturday nights,” said Senior Deputy Ed Tumbleson with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which patrols the city of nearly 28,000.

Tumbleson, the department’s community service officer assigned to Moorpark, said 21 juveniles were arrested for alcohol-related offenses in 1995. But “if we made 21 arrests,” he adds, “how many got by us?”

The coalition--which includes representatives from the Sheriff’s Department, school district and the community group Moorpark Project Pride--is just beginning to devise ways to address the concern. Green said the coalition could focus its attention on parents who tolerate teen drinking in their homes by showing them the dangers inherent in their attitude.

“It’s wide open what our actual activities will be,” Green said. “We’re just taking baby steps right now.”

A similar group in Oxnard, the Colonia Coalition on Alcohol and Other Drugs, has fought substance abuse by sponsoring alcohol-free parties and Friday night dances and basketball games at Colonia Gym.

The Moorpark coalition will begin its brainstorming process in August by hosting a meeting to solicit community input and support. Moorpark residents--including teens--will be invited to help shape the coalition’s program proposal.

“We really are targeting youth, and to have a bunch of us gray-hairs trying to come up with ideas without the youth--that wouldn’t work,” Green said.