Tucson, Arizona Sunday, 23 December 2001

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/11223borderdrinking2f2frjs-j.html
By Tim Steller
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A legal obstacle has ended one effort at reducing drinking in Mexico by young Americans, but authorities across the borderland are experimenting with others during the holidays.

For years, police in Nogales, Ariz., and Douglas used a creative tactic to dissuade those under 21 from imbibing in Mexico.

On occasional weekend nights, officers would station themselves on the American side of the downtown port of entry. They would wait for Americans to return from bars in Mexico, where the drinking age is 18.

Anyone under 21 who admitted drinking would be ticketed for possessing alcohol - in their bodies.

But the courts did not uphold the tickets when they were challenged, said Nogales City Attorney Joe L. Machado. That led both cities to end the practice recently.

Officers across Arizona's southern border now face the same problem: How to minimize the number of people under 21 who drink alcohol in Mexico and come back to the United States - sometimes walking straight to their cars to drive home.

There was an effort last year to fix the problem through a new state law.

"The idea is to make it a crime for them to have a blood-alcohol level," said Cochise County Attorney Chris Roll.

That way, officers would not have to try ticketing people under 21 for possession or consumption of alcohol in another country.

But a bill that would have made this change died in committee when it was combined with other, unpopular legislation, said Sgt. Ed Slechta of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Slechta is hoping the proposal will become law this legislative session, but meanwhile officials in San Luis have created their own solution.

The border town at Arizona's southwesternmost corner is the main crossing point for those going from the Yuma area into San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora. In past years, high school students from Yuma rented clubs in Mexico for graduation-night parties, said Sgt. Ernesto Lugo of the San Luis Police Department.

But last December, the San Luis City Council passed an ordinance making it illegal for anyone under 21 to be under the influence of alcohol within the city limits.

"We've been using it to prosecute these kids who are not 21 but who are over 18," Lugo said.

The prosecutions have led to dramatic reductions in drinking in Mexico by people in that age group, he said. On graduation night this May, the number of people under 21 going to Mexico to drink was down by 90 percent from the year before, he said.

"Hardly anyone crosses into Mexico like they used to before the ordinance," Lugo said.

Machado said officials in Nogales are considering proposing the same sort of ordinance.

San Luis is one of several border communities where officers also have experimented with stopping young people as they approach the border, headed south for a night on the town.

In San Diego, eight officers patrol the busy San Ysidro port of entry every weekend night and holiday eve, said Sgt. Max Verduzco of the Police Department's border-crime-suppression team. They start at 8 p.m. and work until 6 the next morning.

Initially they check the Tijuana-bound traffic for anyone under 18, Verduzco said. By law, no juvenile can leave the country unaccompanied by a parent, and potential underage drinkers often can be turned back for that.

As the night wears on, officers begin monitoring return traffic for public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and other offenses that can be ticketed, Verduzco said. So far this year, the team has made more than 1,000 arrests.

Officers in Arizona's border towns are hamstrung by having fewer officers to throw at the problem than cities such as San Diego.

In Douglas, police officers do occasional "curfew details" - operations in which they search for underage people going to or coming from Mexico, Officer Mark Wilkinson said. A city ordinance prevents juveniles from being on the streets after 10 on weeknights or after midnight on weekends.

In Nogales, officers may have their hands full this holiday season. Although the absence of college students reduces traffic from Tucson, the Mexican bars continue catering to a late-night crowd.

This year, nightclub owners appealed to Sonoran government officials for an extension of the bar-closing time state-wide from Dec. 1 through New Year's Day, said Luis Fernando Flores Vasquez, the director of alcohol enforcement in Nogales, Sonora.

The state government granted the extension. Until Jan. 2, bars in Sonora's border cities will be open past the usual closing time, 3 a.m., and will close at 4 a.m.

* Contact Tim Steller at 434-4086 or steller@azstarnet.com.

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