Drinking Certificates Would Let Underaged Louisianans Buy Booze

BATON ROUGE, LA — If a bill in the Louisiana Legislature passes, life will get a lot easier for underage college students who risk arrest with fake IDs that get them into bars or have an older friend buy their drinks.

Sen. Eric LaFleur, a Democrat from Ville Platte, says over-21 laws don’t work, they increase the chances of unsavory goings on at house parties and they tax the resources of police who have to round up all the underage drinkers.

LaFleur’s bill, Senate Bill 429, would allow 19- and 20-year-olds to buy and consume alcohol if they get certificate from the state — a drinking license, in effect.

Research on drinking-related fraternity parties and binge drinking among underage drinkers supports the creation of a legal path for young drinkers to do what they’ve been doing years, LaFleur maintains.

The dangers of binge drinking are illustrated by the hazing death last fall of a Louisiana State University fraternity pledge who had a blood alcohol content of .459 when he died, six times the legal limit, LaFleur said in an interview with The Daily Advertiser.

A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found binge drinking is most rampant and young drinkers, and that people under age 21 who drink excessively during short periods of time do so on multiple occasions. That study also showed that 90 percent of alcohol consumed

Wouldn’t it be better, he asks, to have underage people drinking in bars and restaurants, where they’re subject to the establishment’s rules and peers can keep them in check? In other words, friends won’t let friends behave badly — a scene from any of the “Hangover” movies springs to mind.

“You have a little peer pressure to act appropriately when you drink, or not to drink so much that you act inappropriately,” LaFleur tells The Daily Advertiser.

Here’s how the certification would work: 19- and 20-year-olds with permission from their parents would take an alcohol education class that covers health risks, absorption rates, and laws and penalties regarding alcohol consumption. Upon completion, they’d get a Louisiana Alcohol Consumption Certificate. Basically, they’d take the same test taken by bartenders and others who serve alcohol.

A Senate judiciary panel delayed action on SB421 until next week, but plenty of people are already panning it, including Times Picayune columnist Tim Morris, whose headline on a column Thursday heralds the idea as being “as stupid as it sounds.”

“They're going to have sex, so let's put condoms in middle and high schools,” Morris writes. “They're going to drink before the legal age, so let's lower the age. If they start juggling hand grenades, we'll get them bomb disposal suits and helmets.”

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