<p>Where did you people live where they never arrested kids for underage drinking. I never got caught, but I knew plenty of friends who did in NJ and Upstate NY 40 years ago. The only significant change I’ve seen in how things are handled is with drinking and driving. Years ago the police would probably let someone, including an 18 year old, off with a warning if they had no priors. That’s no longer an option – nor should it be – with current DWI laws.</p>
<p>cart – Minor in Possession</p>
<p>Hudson – suburb of NYC</p>
<p>cartera–minor in possession</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Kids can drink in college, right?</p>
<p>Alcohol is not the problem, but drinking too much is, imo.</p>
<p>“Kids can drink in college, right?”</p>
<p>Wrong. Kids do drink in college.</p>
<p>“Alcohol is not the problem, but drinking too much is, imo.”</p>
<p>Agreed. However, consumption of alcohol by persons under age 21 is also illegal. Breaking the law can be a problem.</p>
<p>Stupid laws create stupid consequences.</p>
<p>Along these lines - progressing to college. 19 yo student arrested during a post Superbowl disturbance on the UMass campus. The school expelled him, the parents are suing. I don’t know enough about the situation to have an opinion, but the whole incident will cost the student, the school and the family greatly.</p>
<p>So on CNN yesterday, I saw a report on a news station that had been doing a series on underage drinking and illegal drug use. They discovered a liquor store that was selling to minors and outed the store and the parties. The reporter in question received such serious threats that she had to go off the air and the police were called into protect her.</p>
<p>The threats were from the teens and their parents. Only one parent scolded her child, the rest attacked the source.</p>
<p>The drinking age is a public policy decision, and while it might not be easy to lower, if these parents feel as if it is ok for their kids to drink – then attack the problem legislatively. Elect like minded officials and work to change the laws.</p>
<p>Conso – agreeed</p>
<p>1012mom – the situation at Umass Amherst, at least viewed from outside, has gotten out of hand. Town and school are outrageoulsy enforceing laws - which I beleive to be unconstitutional. Town put a noise law on books. No standards, some kids get violation for being in wrong place, wrong time. Like parties with no amplified music at 11PM on a saturday night. School is arresting for “failure to disperse” on 15 minutes notice. They have eliminate amnesty policy if kid calls 911. Guess they’ld rather have kids OD.</p>
<p>It is understandable if some kids in areas like McLean think they are special. Many parents will give their kids every advantage, and the kids know it. Think of how much it would help to have your name on a research publication or a patent when applying to college. That could get you into a top college. Some parents make large donations to scientists labs and then their kids get summer internships in those same labs. That research experience looks good to admissions committees. </p>
<p>D knows a kid who is a very good soccer player. Several years ago when the players team hired its first coach, the player’s dad gave the coach a job working for his company. When that coach moved on after three years, the dad hired the new coach. Again, the kid was a very good player, but nothing was left to chance. It is no wonder that some McLean kids think they are invulnerable.</p>
<p>^^The American Way.^^</p>
<p>It’s always been this way, but today you do not have to be a Mayflower Descendant to benefit.</p>
<p>Lastminutemom196, I saw the story about the newswoman. That was the second metro Washington DC underage drinking event I spoke of. What made my eyes roll over about that story was when the reporter said that during a police raid of the offending liquor store, wherein the police were accompanied by a camera crew from the station, a parent was heard asking his arrested son “why didn’t you run?”</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the original story in the Washington Post:
[WUSA</a> reporter balks after backlash over teen drinking stories - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/wusa-reporter-balks-after-backlash-over-teen-drinking-stories/2012/02/14/gIQAmE3tER_story.html]WUSA”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/wusa-reporter-balks-after-backlash-over-teen-drinking-stories/2012/02/14/gIQAmE3tER_story.html)</p>
<p>Sadly, this doesn’t surprise me at all. If parents don’t take drinking laws seriously (and too many don’t) then the kids will ignore them. It’s not much of a stretch to see that they will also attack anyone who seems to be getting in the way of the perceived “right” to engage in underage drinking.</p>
<p>I’m just sorry that this reporter’s children have become targets of those who don’t want the truth about what’s going on in their community to come out. It’s a real shame that she’s been intimidated into abandoning her work on a very serious story about a very real problem.</p>
<p>Why is it that many countries, like in Europe and Israel, dont have draconian laws on drinking yet have less drinking problems?</p>
<p>^^because the legal system in the US is the ultimate “helicopter parent”.</p>
<p>I think it’s a myth that Europe doesn’t have drinking problems. Ever heard of the UK or Russia? Ireland isn’t immune from binge drinking either. Obviously, correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it’s clear that changing our drinking age isn’t going to change our alcohol culture.</p>
<p>Everything I have read indicates it is a myth that drinking is not as big or an even bigger problem in parts of Europe. </p>
<p>Here is just one article of many out there. </p>
<p>[UK</a> and Republic top European binge-drinking list - The Irish Times - Fri, Jan 27, 2012](<a href=“http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0127/1224310809251.html]UK”>http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0127/1224310809251.html)</p>
<p>I used to hang out at a local playground behind an elementary school (they had tennis courts, a basketball court and a backboard) with other high-school kids and some drank beer and smoked joints. The police came from time to time but I never saw anyone arrested - they’d speak to a kid or two but that was it.</p>
<p>There’s underage drinking at my son’s school too - off-campus, and in the apartments above the police station. The police chat with the kids on the balcony from the street level. The police have enough real crime to deal with.</p>
<p>What about Sweden, and Israel? Maybe we need a better understanding of why some cultures have these problems. Laws dont seem to be working.</p>
<p>Every single northern European country has higher binge drinking rates among youth, higher heavy use rates, higher cirrhosis rates, higher liver cancer rates, and much higher death rates from alcohol. Every single one of them - not a single exception. This is very well studied and well-documented.</p>
<p>Laws ARE working. Youth alcohol rates in the U.S. are more than 40% lower than they were in the early 1990s. Tens of thousands of deaths have been averted by the age 21 drinking age laws.</p>
<p>I can provide literally hundreds of article citations, USDOJ reports, World Health Organization reports, Monitoring the Future reports, Youth Behavioral Risk Factor Survey reports. But people will believe what they will.</p>
<p>You can start here, but there are hundreds of others:
<a href=“http://www.udetc.org/documents/CompareDrinkRate.pdf[/url]”>http://www.udetc.org/documents/CompareDrinkRate.pdf</a></p>