Fighting Underage Drinking

Alcohol kills 6.5 times more kids every year than all other illicit drugs combined, according to statistics released by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). And, with Internet access, it is getting easier for kids to acquire fake I.D. cards.

The organization and the Department of Justice were to hold a press conference Monday to announce their new partnership to form Youth in Action, the first federally funded national program to target under-age drinking.

CBS This Morning's Correspondent Hattie Kauffman spoke with the president of MADD, Karolyn Nunnalle.

"Parents seem to think that alcohol use is a rite of passage, and we need to educate parents and educate our youth to let them know the dangers associated with using the product alcohol," said Nunnalle.

MADD has released a new economic analysis that estimates that underage drinking costs the country $58 billion a year.

The new program is aimed at curbing underage drinking through enforcement, says Nunnalle.

With the Department of Justice, MADD is expanding existing "Youth In Action" programs to 14 additional communities, pairing teenagers with local law enforcement to target sales to minors and sales of fake I.D. cards.

"We've said from early ages that we've got to have young people really know that law enforcement are their friends. Law enforcement wants to work with youth in the communities because they know by working with youth and making them understand the system we are going to really lower the crime in communities," said Nunnalle.

Their goal, Nannalle said, is to make underage teen drinking as socially unacceptable as driving while drunk has become.

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