In more and more communities across the nation, laws and ordinances against social hosting are popping up, an effort to curb the number of teenagers who drink and drive. These social hosting laws incriminate the parents, or any other adult, who provides alcohol to underage drinkers.
In one of the latest tragedies surrounding underage drinking, a 16-year-old Georgia boy was killed instantly during a head-on collision on January 24. The boy’s friend was driving and both boys had been drinking. They got their alcohol from the driver’s stepmother, who has been arrested on two misdemeanor counts – reckless conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor. She has paid a $10,000 bond for her release from jail and, if convicted in April, faces as much as a year in jail and thousands of dollars in fines.
Kids in the small, affluent community where this tragedy occurred say it’s easier to get alcohol from older friends and relatives than it is to buy it with a fake ID. They also say drinking parties happen every weekend.
While this particular community has no specific social hosting laws, parents in the community have become so outraged by these disclosures they’ve launched a campaign – ‘Adults Who Host Lose the Most’ – in an effort to increase public awareness of the dangers of furnishing alcohol to minors. Their efforts are working, although not quickly or thoroughly enough to have prevented the deadly January 24 collision. In 2006, 73% of the county’s 10th graders said it’s easy to obtain alcohol but only 68% said so in 2007.
Until all adults in a community accept responsibility for condoning underage drinking, the parties will continue. Kids will always know the one place where it’s OK to drink and party with their friends. One high school senior in Georgia, where there are no statewide social hosting laws, says getting alcohol is simply a matter of having the money to pay for it.
In other communities across the country, adults are serving jail time for allowing minors in their homes to drink alcoholic beverages. In some cases, automobile accidents have resulted but, in other cases, adults face conviction even when teenagers don’t drive drunk.
The Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) organization says educating parents is one of their biggest challenges. Many parents assume it’s safer to allow drinking in the home, under their own watchful eyes, than allowing their children to go elsewhere under the false presumption there will be no drinking. In many families, serving that first drink to their children is a rite of passage.
According to statistics furnished by the National Conference of State Legislatures, 24 states have social hosting laws in place that allows fining parents who serve alcohol to underage drinkers. In some of these states, parents can be fined even when they are unaware that underage drinking is happening in their homes. In states where no social hosting laws exist, concerned citizens are turning to local zoning laws to contain the problem.
The federal Alcohol Policy Information System lists 10 states, including Georgia, where it is legal for parents to serve alcohol to their own children, regardless of the child’s age. No state, however, makes it legal for an adult to serve alcohol to someone else’s children.
The US faces an alarming trend of binge drinking, especially where minors are concerned. A 2005 study by the American Medical Association indicates alcohol is easy to obtain for weekend binge-drinking parties. About one-third of teenagers questioned say they get alcohol from their parents. Even more, 40%, get alcohol from a friend’s parent and 25% say they’ve been to parties where teenagers are freely drinking in the presence of an adult.
More Resources
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- Poor Sleep Habits Elevate Teen Blood Pressure
- Getting Drugs No Problem For Today’s Teens
- Teens’ Strong Bones Start With Childhood Dairy Intake
- Americans Tippling Less Than Their Ancestors
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- Athletic Kids Need Month-Long Break from Sports
- MADD Calls on Adults to Curb Underage Drinking
Most countries around the world don’t even enforce their drinking ages if they have one (including Western European countries), many youths around the world are already working or possibly married.
The drinking age is a completely superficial issue.
When our country officially goes bankrupt, how are we supposed to enforce our drinking age, we as Americans have over consumed and given our youths a decadent lifestyle, they will have to grow up quickly again however, once social services are cut, and our ‘minimum ages’ aren’t enforced.
As for the parents, what is the difference between one biological adult having friendly relations with another, really?
Far too often we read a heartbreaking story of a tragedy involving underage drinking, and more often than not the source of alcohol for these youth is their family or friends. For nearly 20 years, The Century Council has been addressing the issue of adults providing alcohol to youth through stiffer penalties and tougher social host laws.
The article above mentions many important issues involving this very important component to stopping underage drinking. In 2006, The Century Council joined the Federal Trade Commission and other national organizations to launch a public awareness campaign to stop underage drinking. This initiative called “We Don’t Serve Teens (www.dontserveteens.gov),” is designed to inform adults that providing youth with alcohol is unsafe, illegal, and irresponsible. What this program showed was that overwhelmingly, parents, do not believe it is acceptable for other adults to provide beverage alcohol to underage youth. In a commissioned survey, ninety-six percent of adults said it is unacceptable for another parent or other adult to provide alcohol to their teenager without their permission. A significant percentage of parents said they would contact the police, file charges against the other parent, or take similar action if they discovered their child was being given access to alcohol.
The Century Council supports license suspension penalties, mandatory community service, fines, and graduated penalties for repeat offenders who furnish alcohol to minors. Working to restrict access to alcohol by those under the legal purchase age is everyone’s goal, but to achieve success, we must all take action together and work to change the perception that the underage consumption of alcohol is a rite of passage.
Thanks, Matt, for the input from an alcohol retailer’s advocacy group. I would welcome that input as soon as the Century Council advocates the removal of ALL advertising that targets underage drinkers. Further, when the CC advocates for harsher penalties for retailers who sell to minors, I will personally give YOU a big hug. Until then, the self-serving interests of a special interest group have no place in this discussion.
Jon, your thoughts are a bit scattered…but the drinking age is not a superficial issue. When it comes to unsafe/unhealthy consumption of alcohol by young people, most European nations are worse-off than the U.S. Leaders in Italy, France, the U.K. and other nations are examining how to change policies (including the drinking age) in the interest of public health. Update your information, starting with this link: http://www.udetc.org/documents/CompareDrinkRate.pdf
As far as the original article, there’s one point that need clarification. In most if not all states, it is already illegal to “furnish” alcohol to minors. Social host ordinances often make it illegal to provide a venue for underage drinking (even if the minors bring their own booze).
And while parental education is key, many social host ordinances hold party hosts responsible…whether or not the host is an adult. It doesn’t make sense to hold a parent (or landlord) responsible if they’re not even present when some high school kids decide to host a party. It’s about holding party hosts responsible, whether they’re adults, high school kids, parents, frat boys, or the sexual predator down the block.
..the bottom line is that the headline is off-point. Okay, it’s WRONG.
Social host laws DON’T “incriminate parents.” Social host laws hold party hosts accountable for underage drinking.
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