After every tragedy, the community cries that enough is enough. But what's it going to take to change the behavioral culture of alcohol abuse in Northern New Mexico?

How to balance targeting efforts toward chronic drunken drivers, social drinkers, at-risk teenagers, their parents and other demographic groups is one of the issues being tackled by a committee commissioned by Santa Fe's city and county government.

A community meeting planned for Sept. 17 will air recommendations from the group on four areas of concern: funding, law enforcement, treatment and education.

Expect a major lobbying effort at the state Legislature next year for more taxation that will generate revenue specifically for alcohol-related problems.

County Manager Roman Abeyta said city and county lawmakers should back a plan the state attorney general intends to introduce. It would allow a voter-approved, local-option sales tax on alcohol that would send money directly to the county in which the booze is purchased, and/or to increase the statewide alcohol excise tax and order more of its revenue to be distributed to local programs.

"We are going to support (Attorney General Gary King's) efforts and we assume they are going to take the lead," said Abeyta. "But if they don't, we are willing to take it on ourselves ... We are going to be very aggressive when it comes to these two initiatives."

Abeyta, who is heading up the taxation subcommittee for the group, said he's also approaching alcohol lobbyists who have opposed previous efforts at tax increases to see if he can make headway in advance of the Jan. 1 legislative session.

Closing loopholes in state drunken-driving laws and making sure city and county rules match are both critical activities that will improve law enforcement on alcohol issues, said Billie Blair, president of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, who organized the group's subcommittee on the topic.

"The surest deterrent to DWI is swiftness and certainty of punishment," she said.

Blair said police, judges, attorneys and others in the group have reviewed a recent proposal from Gov. Bill Richardson that is also expected to hit the House and Senate floors next year. The package includes provisions that would no longer permit judges to sentence drunk-driving offenders to electronic monitoring in lieu of jail time, and would allow prosecutors to shoot for second-degree murder charges in cases where drunken driving is the cause of a fatality.

City Police Chief Aric Wheeler said the proposals could have the effect of increasing costs the city pays for defendants to sit in jail. In the long run, however, costs could go down if stiffer punishment leads to dwindling numbers of offenses.

Putting more dollars into treatment for alcoholics is something most who are working on the issue agree should be a priority, yet the region continues to lack enough facilities and funding for an effective spectrum of services.

Dr. Eric Kraska, an emergency room physician at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, explained that the group working on treatment recommendations came to several conclusions that have been reached here before.

The city and county made efforts toward establishing a "sobering center" with other community partners, and Kraska said officials should "dust off the plan" to make it a complete, secure, medical-monitored care program because it has proved to work in other places.

"There are no easy angles at it," Kraska told the larger group at a meeting Thursday morning. The problem of alcohol abuse, he said, is "never going to go away. It's going to require ongoing effort year after year."

City and county officials ordered the working group to assemble by a joint resolution in late June, after four Santa Fe teens died when the car they were riding in collided with one driven by a suspected drunken driver. Although the teenage driver who survived the crash was not drinking that night, advocates acknowledge that reaching youth is an important part of combating the community problem.

When it comes to education, simply tracking all the ongoing programs is a challenge and calls for creation of a two-page spreadsheet. Rating each program's effectiveness and setting priorities is an even taller order for the subcommittee, which recommended 11 steps for increasing prevention.

Their advice includes setting up a 90-minute online course aimed at reducing binge drinking among high-school students and college freshmen, and a program for all fifth-graders in public and private schools.

Just putting out enough positive messages is difficult, said Shelley Mann-Lev, who along with City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez and others will report to officials about the topic.

"There is a lot of education going on that doesn't come under prevention. ... Much of what is being done is to promote alcohol" said Mann-Lev, director of the Santa Fe Underaged Drinking Prevention Alliance.

Nationwide figures from 2003, for example, show an estimated $813 million spent by the alcohol industry on ads, compared to $30 million in spending nationwide on prevention campaigns, or "responsible drinking" ads.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Joint City Council and County Commission meeting on recommendations from committee on "Addressing Alcohol Abuse"

When: 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 17

Where: Board of Education Chambers, 610 Alta Vista St.

More information: Contact Santa Fe County Manager Roman Abeyta at 986-6200.