I am not a heavy drinker by any stretch of the imagination. However, this did not leave me immune to the long arm of the law. This summer I went to the Union with three of my roommates. I had one beer and I received a ticket for underage drinking. One beer at the Union ended up costing me $119 and eight hours community service.
However, because this incident has not stopped me from drinking, it seems the punishment is not having the deterring effect intended. The purpose of alcohol policy should not be to drive students to conceal their drinking, but to promote safe, responsible drinking.
What's sad is that the only thing this episode has taught me is to conceal my drinking. Concealed drinking inevitably means house parties or situations with less supervision. This is the problem with the alcohol policy here on campus: Punishments drive students toward circumstances where more trouble is likely to occur. The problem is not drinking by minors but forcing those minors toward dangerous drinking.
It is a worthy goal to want to stop underage drinking. However, it appears the city and the university have sacrificed students' safety by trying to prevent kids from drinking at all.
Both the city and university can promote safe drinking by lowering fines levied for underage drinkers at safe locations like bars or the Union. By lowering the penalties for safely drinking in regulated locations, the police would effectively lower the incidence of unsafe drinking.
Along with changing the amount of tickets given, the drink specials ban should be revoked. The drink specials ban serves to raise prices in the regulated market, which pushes consumers into unregulated market where prices are comparatively lower. This means more people drinking at house parties.
It is baffling that the police undertake polices that exacerbate the problem that they fear most: binge drinking. It is a lot easier to binge drink at a house party where $5 gets you beer all night. Drinking six beers a night at a bar gets pretty pricey if you're trying to binge.
You would think that if the police were serious about limiting dangerous drinking, they would push for breaking up more house parties. It is not like house party proprietors are exceedingly slick in hiding the parties. Yet it is considered unlucky to have a party broken up or to receive some kind of fine for providing alcohol to minors. The university's lobbying efforts should be geared toward these substantive changes, not cosmetic fixes like drink special bans.
Alcohol is a major issue on this campus, but no one seems to be offering any real solutions. The efforts put forth so far have only served to accentuate the problem. The police and the university need to recognize the source of the problem, and they will realize that handing out punitive tickets at bars isn't the solution.
