Sen. Pete Miller has introduced SB 28 which makes it a crime to “recklessly or knowingly” rent property or provide or arrange for the use of the property “for the purpose of allowing the or enabling a minor to consume an alcoholic beverage on the property.”
This feels like one of those bills responding to a specific incident; but I don’t know if that’s the case and, if so, what the incident might have been. My initial reaction is that this is probably an unnecessary bill. To the extent consumption of alcohol by minors is a problem; the place of consumption is a little bit incidental. Usually, kids will be able to find some woods or a cornfield for drinking if they have access to the booze. Or worse, just cruising the back roads while they drink.
If it makes the first two pages of a newspaper, people think it’s a big problem that needs a law.
“Ripped from the headlines” legislation.
Isn’t there a saying something like “good cases make bad law”?
“Hard cases make bad law.”
Thanks.
So, illegal to rent to college students?
It’s funny, the only rental properties I can think of using as a high-schooler were campsites at state parks and hotel rooms.
What an idiotic bill. If kids are going to drink, far better to do it in a safe environment.
They might not drink, at all, if weed were legal. Oh, the problems meddling creates.
The bit about drinking in a “safe environment” sounds good, and would be good if everyone were responsible. The problem is that kids (who are not responsible) gather at another kid’s house and they all drink, but the parents who are supposed to supervise them don’t. I know a situation where one kid passed out with alcohol poisoning, nobody called 911 and she died while everyone partied on. In Illinois, they have a law that holds parents responsible when a kid dies in their house from an alcohol-related situation.
I suspect that this is one of those laws that tries to plug the holes caused by irresponsible, high-risk people, which is like wack-a-mole.
This is what Miller is responding to:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/18/indiana-bar-raid-teen-drinkers/1998379/
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130318/news19/303180075/erika-d-smith-80-minors-arrested-northwestside-bar-don-t-shocked
Some of it is a culture clash, in that recent Latino immigrants rent out places for parties and don’t think much of kids drinking, because it was allowed in their home country. But it sounds like other places have rented to underage drinking parties that were not ethnic-specific, if that’s a word. It would seem if a place already has a liquor license, that would cover things, but I guess Miller feels like he needs to put the smack down on individual owners, particularly if they don’t have a liquor license to pull.