Commentary; Posted: 10/3/07
Social host liability law is needed
By Don Heinzman
Under-age drinking at house parties is a growing concern in the Nation and now in Minnesota.
The city of Chaska is the first to approve an ordinance that makes it illegal for the host knowingly to allow drinking of alcoholic beverages on their premises.
Across the country, at least 32 states have social host liability laws in place. Where states haven’t passed such laws, cities and communities are passing them, just like Chaska.
Chaska’s City Council acted after the Carver County Board of Commissioners kept stalling on a decision.
Morrison County, where a Pierz Area Coalition wants a social host law passed, is scheduling a hearing Monday, Oct. 10.
Critics are calling such laws an invasion of privacy and the home, and say parents should be responsible for where and how much their youngsters drink.
The Chaska law does not apply to parents who provide alcohol to their own children in their home and provide alcoholic beverage for religious observances. Parents are not liable if they were gone on vacation and their youngsters without their knowledge host a drinking party.
Surveys of youth show the most common sources of alcohol are the young person’s own home and from persons over the age of 21 who buy the alcohol for them, according to a University of Minnesota analysis.
The number of parties in homes where alcohol is consumed is growing, according to law enforcement officials. Deaths from drinking alcohol at home parties underscore the need for a tougher law on the hosts.
National research shows that 57 percent of minors say they drink at friends’ homes; 30 percent report they drank alcohol at home with their parents’ permission.
In Minnesota there is a gap on enforcing under-age drinking laws.
The law, known as the “Brockway Bill,” makes it a felony for anyone who not only sells it, but barters, furnishes or gives alcoholic beverages to a person under 21 years of age who becomes intoxicated and causes or suffers death or great bodily harm.
There is no law in Minnesota that makes the host or property owner criminally liable for knowingly allowing under-age drinking for those 18 to 21 on the premises. Enough law exists to charge hosts who have parties for youngsters under age 18.
What is more alarming are parents who allow young people to drink at homecoming and prom parties, saying they prefer to have young people drinking at home than driving somewhere else.
Such logic is flawed, because they could be liable if someone who was at the party ends up causing a traffic accident.
Today experts say alcohol is the drug of choice and the leading cause of death among teenagers.
The Institute for Public Strategies reports that alcohol is a factor in nearly half of all the teenage accidents and in over half of the youth suicides.
In Chaska, Police Chief Scott Knight urged his council to act, because of the growing number of under-age people who are drinking at house parties.
The Pierz Area Coalition in a survey found that 84 percent of those surveyed said they strongly felt law enforcement should spend more time enforcing underage drinking laws. They are pushing the Social Host Ordinance.
Opponents argue drinking is a right of passage and the real problem is the drinking age, which should be 18 instead of 21.
The city council in Chaska is to be commended for passing an ordinance that should send a message to parents that knowingly allowing under-age drinking on their premises is unacceptable.
Anoka County Attorney Robert Johnson has a good suggestion. Rather than penalize those guilty hosts with an ordinance violation, why not have a civil penalty to go along with a fine?
The same point and message will be driven home with a civil penalty.
He’s right.
There should be wide-ranging discussion in communities and counties and maybe the state on the wisdom of tightening the law on liability for hosting under-age drinking.
Forest Lake Times
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