The White River School District will sponsor a town hall meeting addressing underage drinking tonight, Thursday, at the Multi-Purpose center in downtown Buckley. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a complementary dinner and last two hours.

Community leaders will speak out on the issue of curbing teen alcohol consumption and the community will have a chance to speak back in a frank discussion of the problem.

Twenty-five percent of alcohol consumed in the United States is by people younger than 21, according to a Columbia University study published in 2002. The results prompted the conductors of the study to declare underage drinking “an epidemic.”

Monday, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health released a state-by-state estimate on underage alcohol consumption based on surveys conducted from 2006 to 2008.

It was estimated that 29.3 to 32 percent of alcohol consumed in Washington state was by minors, higher than the national average of 27.6 percent.

The Buckley Multi-Purpose center is at 811 Main Street.