by INFORUM
North Dakota Legislature takes aim at ‘social hosts’ of underage drinking
January 24, 2011 at 6:00 pm in INFORUM
BISMARCK A Wyndmere lawmaker wants North Dakota to adopt a “social host” law to crack down on underage drinking parties. Continue Reading
heres a good way to curb underage drinking. lower the drinking age
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Manitoba used to have a law where folks had to sign when they purchased adult beverages. I think that ended when they found out so many people were signing “Karl Marx” or “Queen Elizabeth.”
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@soccermom Libertarian wasn’t talking about binge drinking, he was talking about underage drinking… Big difference…
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Pff I think we have worse things to worry about, like will we even have a country left after their massive debt gets out of control and breaks us. I think our legislature has way to much time on their hands passing dumb laws every two years.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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@Joe
I like how you say “will WE even have a country” but then you call it “THEIR debt” and then turn around and say “breaks US”. Its like you want to be a part of this country but don’t want to own up to your part of the debt. Everybody needs to remember that WE elect our politicians, and WE are in control of this country.
Off topic I know, but I had to point that out.
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the more and harder they try to curtail this the more secretive the kids will get and make it so they are harder to find when drinking. They need to start providing alternative and education about it. If there is nothing else for the kids to do, they are going to drink. Everybody trys to enforce this but not offer anything else for the kids to do. What do you expect when you do not give them anythings else to do except give them a Taboo thing to do.
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Teenagers are defiant. The harder you make it for them to get alcohol the harder they will work to get alcohol.
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The first thing we need to do is set a better example as parents. We don’t need more laws, just better parenting. We show them how to party and get drunk, and shack up, what do we expect?
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When I was in high school, there was always a place to go party where nobody would find you. If the cops started to catch on to our spots we simply moved to a new one. Its just going to continue to be a cat and mouse game. The more you chase them, the more they will run, the more they run, the more bad decisions they make.
Look back 20 or 30 years ago, was underage drinking seen as this big of a problem? No, because it was less regulated and more accepted. Young adults are perfectly capable of making decisions for themselves, nobody flips a decision making switch the day you turn 18 or 21. We cant control everything, kids will be kids and bad decisions will be made, it will never change.
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This will probably be unpopular, but I think there is something to be said for an adult who allows 19-20 year olds (not high schoolers) to drink in their home, but does not let them drive or leave the house inebriated. That is certainly better than teenagers getting together on their own without adult supervision, drinking until they get sick, then trying to drive home early morning and sneak back in their house so they don’t get in trouble for being out so late. I think this law would encourage much more of the latter, and how can that be a good thing?
In this case I think positive reinforcement, as opposed to punishment, will prove much better in mitigating the issues of underage drinking.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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They have to leave the house sometimes, what happens if they get into an accident? If they kill someone? Sorry, the law is the law, just because you don’t like it is not a reason to break it.
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Well they can always leave the next day when they are sober. I think what Dent is saying is that the hosts deserve some kudos if they at least keep the people drinking in a place where they won’t drive or cause trouble.
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I have to agree here. If you get busted for a party keep the people there till they are sober instead of forcing them to leave and drive drunk. I have had a gathering that was busted by the party patrol, I was told to kick everyone out or pay a $1000 fine. Well needless to say I kicked everyone out and they all got in there cars and drove where ever.
Yes everyone that was there was 21yrs old, it was a house warming gathering for my new house.
Everyone was having a good time brought there own drinks, we provided some snacks and it was all fun. A lil music playing and people conversing was all good.
Now was sending people out on the residential roads and city streets a wise thing for the officers involved, probably not but I would guarantee they were watching them and trying to bust them for DUI or DWI, and they were the reason they were on the roads.
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Sen. Stan Lyson, R-Williston, said proving a property owner gave permission to underage drinkers is “almost unheard of.â€
“Pretty soon, we better start putting the burden on the people that are drinking and the parents,†he said.
Fine statement there. We also need to reduce the drinking age to 18 but then I think we lose a lot of highway funding if we consider it. Really lame to have a $500 + fine and 30 days in jail for a MIC/MIP in the city of Fargo. That is on par with a person who commits assault or disorderly conduct. Excessive to no end.
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I agree. Maybe the state could add a tax or something to the purchase of alcohol to compensate for lack of federal funding for highways. I mean, being under 21, I guarantee that people under 21 buy alcohol all the time. We might as well just accept it and make a profit off of it. Less minors would get in trouble and more taxes would be made. And you are also right when you say that it is wrong to treat someone who hosts a party to have a good time, as someone who committed a crime like assault or disorderly conduct. Just another example at how flawed our justice system can be.
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Assuming there are parents who allow a graduation party or a season-end sports party at their home. A solution? Pack up the team and head to Winnipeg or Brandon for a weekend – then everyone over 18 is LEGAL. Yeah, I know… people are likely not going to do that very often. Just a thought. Secondarily, it’s been mentioned plenty above –> add all the laws you want, kids will find a way around them. We’d be better suited to teach RESPONSIBLE consumption than complete abstinence until age 21.
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That would have been more feasible a few years ago when passports or passport cards weren’t required to cross the border.
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All of my best drinking stories, which I still tell to this day, occured BEFORE I was 21. All the most epic parties, raging bonfires out in the woods, hot chicks getting crazy, times we almost got busted at mega house parties,or did get busted…. ahhh good times!!
We eventually go off to college, get a job, and grow out of it – so everyone should just chill and pop a cold one. It’s life and I don’t regret it.
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I totally agree. There were many good times had at parties like that. But also alot of not-so-good moments. I learned alot about life doing the things I did at a that point in my life, probably more than I’m learning about life now. And I think the mistakes that I made, the trouble that I got in, have made me who I am. I learned lessons the hard way, not by someone telling me how to act.
I truly believe that letting kids be kids is the right thing to do. You will get the people that will argue about health, and car accidents, and over consumption, etc. Well, Ive seen many drinking related accidents, people going to the hospital from drinking too much, car accidents, (even lost a couple friends in an accident), getting burned by a bonfire, underestimating a jump from a roof to a snowbank, almost freezing to death running from cops.All of the above things could have been prevented, but at what cost? A generation of sheltered, overprotected, uninformed people that are not prepared for the real world because their life has been controlled since the day then entered this world!
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I agree with that sentiment, but the article is about a bill to regulate people who allow underage people to drink at their house. While it is nice to be in that situation if you are underage, anyone who does that deserves to have the fullest extent of the law applied to them.
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Yes but is the fullest extent of the law reasonable? Personally, I don’t think so. They are criminalizing these people to the extent of people who assault other people. Hosting a party isn’t assault. It’s trying to have fun and socialize with your peers, not beat them up.
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Maybe knowing there would be consequences to their pocketbook will finally get SOME parents to grow up and parent.
I do think they should support landowners if they post their land “No Trespassing” and give them adequate enforcement from police. Where I came from, it took a death out at “the grove” before anything was done about the number of underage drinking parties being thrown there with the landowner’s blessing.
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Underage drinking is going to occur no matter what laws are enacted. Making the landowner responsible is just passing the buck. Kids must be taught there is a “time and a place” for drinking and how to drink responsible. Teenagers need to be taught this before they get to college and become of legal age to drink. Alcohol is not the issue, the issue is unresponsibility.
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More ridiculous laws. Do these morons have a quota they have to meet? This law is so vague and impossible to prove. If parents come home and suspect the kids have been drinking they are required to call the police? Gee, makes more sense to call the kids parents. Unreal. Im making a list of idiots to expose. I hope the sponsor of the bill comes home late one night and had a beer. Then he notices his son smells like beer. But 10 minutes before he got home the neighbors called the police for being loud and when they arrive they smell liquor on his breath and the kids breath. I hope they throw his butt in jail and he has to spend the weekend in jail since it was on a Friday night and courts don’t run on weekends. Then he will realize what he created. We are slowly becoming a police state with the party patrol and check points that violate our 4th ammendment rights.
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Instead of trying to regulate and control every action anyone ever has throughout their lifetime, it would be easier to let people have the responsibility of their own “freedom of choice”, such as it is. Let people go to hell the way they want. It’s not up to others to decide for you or anyone else.
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This is where I agree with Libertarian. Lowering the drinking age. If it is ok for me to defend my country and vote, then why can’t I drink at 18? The government gives all these things to 18 year olds to show that they are adults, but yet they won’t let them drink? Really so what the government is saying is that an 18 year old can vote for a president and die for their country to show maturity, but they can’t go buy beer. Sounds like a double standard to me.
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I can share with you all that from experience, I know the main place underage people get access to alchohol, and especially the culture of alchohol abuse, is in government Prussian modeled schools. Sorry for always bringing up the issue of government schools, but its true! The only way to keep your kids away from the drinking kids, is to let them learn at home. There’s nothing weird, or strange, in knowingwho your kids are hanging out with and approving who your children hang out with. That’s plain old good parenting. And its impossible to do that in factory modeled Prussian K-12 schools. Sorry, but its true.
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Underage people get access from where ever they can… it is not from the Prussian modeled school system… for dumb. They get access to alcohol from interactions between their peers. As much as you like to think, parents can’t control completely who their children hang out with. There comes a time when a child wants a job (usually around age 16) and will come in contact with a lot more people through their workplace. If you are all for homeschooling, great, but for you to say things like how the schools are the reason for underage drinking and schools just try to promote the corporate will is just plain uneducated. That would be like me saying that homeschooling causes kids to become social outcasts. Now we both know that isn’t true. Quit trying to blame everything on the schools.
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I forgot to add, I agree with libertarian. But I would take that a step further and say we need to get rid of the drinking age limit all together. Keep it out of the government and trust parents to know what their kids are up to and who they are hanging out with. But how can parents be trusted when we can’t even trust them to raise their own children without the governmnet interfering. (Public Schools)
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