Regulation as a Stand In for Good Parenting?

I just read this ridiculous letter to the editor of the The Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi:

Underage drinking is on the rise, and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision may make it even easier for minors to get access to alcohol ("Wine commerce could change," May 17).

Currently, if someone tries to buy alcohol in our state, he or she has to undergo a face-to-face ID check at a liquor store, where staff is trained to recognize fake IDs. This is a great mechanism to keep alcohol out of the hands of kids.

However, over the Internet, no one knows who you are — a minor using a parent's credit card can easily order alcohol. And if the alcohol is delivered directly to the home, then the only person who can check IDs is the delivery truck driver, who hardly has the time or the training to properly validate the age of the recipient.

This is a system that is ripe for abuse, which is one of the reasons why direct shipments of alcohol over the Internet have been banned in the past. However, the recent court decision threatens to overturn this.

I strongly support laws that prevent underage consumers from buying alcohol over the Web, and I encourage our attorney general and all of out elected officials to keep fighting to protect our kids from this menace.

Briggs Phariss
Meridian

Are you kidding me? There are so many stupid comments in this letter that I barely have room here to write them. (Keep in mind, I can write virtually as much as I like ;) ) Anyway, here's a few of my comments to Mr. Phariss.

1. Is underage drinking on the rise? Maybe...I don't know definitively either way. But, is the Internet to blame? Minors don't want to wait a week for their wine shipment to arrive. They're much more likely to pay a bum ten bucks to buy them a six-dollar six pack first. Don't laugh, I know people that did this in their youth.
   
2. I guess it's possible that a minor could use his/her parent's credit card to order wine on the Internet, but should goverment regulations take the place of good parenting? How did the minor get the credit card? Are parents not monitoring their own credit cards? And how can the kids recieve a wine shipment without their parents knowing? How can they make sure their parents aren't home when it comes? Seems an unlikely scenario to me on so many levels.
   
3. Delivery truck drivers don't have the "time or training" to check IDs? As someone who receives wine shipments a couple times a week, let me tell you, they do check my ID and make me sign for it. I guess it's possible that a kid will use a fake ID to get wine...only if the 10 grocery stores, 20 convenience stores and 30 bars in town won't fall for it.
4. "...protect our kids from this menace." Menace? Are you referring to poor parenting or to wine? I guess this is the kind of language I'd expect from a somtimes-Bible-thumping state like Mississippi. I can't believe you're more worried about this than the drugs your kids are probably exposed to or even offered every day at school . Nice priorities.
5. "...system ripe for abuse." Right. Are kids even buying wine? I hated the stuff until late in my college career...around when I turned 21. How is this system any more ripe than liquor stores, convenience stores or grocery stores? I've bought alcohol from each before I was 21...without ever owning a fake ID once in my life. They are no more stringent. Trust me.

Sorry for the rant...but there you have it.

Comments

[tom]

Lenn,

Well put! Another thing, didn't that letter sound a bit canned, like a letter written by an advocacy group you could just copy and send off? Hmmmm?

[Lenn]

You know...now that you say that...I think you're absolutely right.

I guess you're more aware than the paper's editor is :)

Regardless...I'm glad I live in New York.

[aardvarknav]

Kids today can get their own credit cards. Just go to any college campus where the card companies practically throw the cards at the students and the parents don't even get notified. But that irrelevant to the issue. Colorado is one of several states that have allowed ordering of wines over the Internet. It there was a real problem with underage ordering, why hasn't it been brought to our attention? Now, that the Supreme Court has made their decision allowing Internet ordering, are teenagers all of a sudden going to start ordering wines over the Internet? I don't think so.

[Lenn]

You're right, minors CAN get their own credit cards...but that's not what the letter writer was talking about :)

Also...is there sort of age verification tied to a credit card purchase. If an 18-year old tried to buy booze with his or her credit card...would it work?

Flat out...you're right...minors aren't buying boutique wines from mini-producers...it's just not happening.

[Joel]

Amen. Guns are easier to get then wine.

Besides, alot of these states could ship "intra-state" wine shipments. Thats what makes the "inter-state" ban illegal. The ruling says "if you allow intra-state, then you can't ban inter-state"...in not so many words.

BTW: how is a 16 year old at the local Safeway more qualified then the pain-in-the-ass UPS guy that checks my ID all the time?

[William L. Wilson]

Go get 'em, Lenn.

As one of the attorneys involved in the very first suit to challenge the ban on wine shipping (Indiana in 1998), I have heard all these BS arguments before. They are made more often by the wine and beer wholesalers than the states. "Briggs Phariss" could easily work for the wholesale industry or a lobbying group representing the industry. He parrots the "party line" awfully well.

[FMIL]

Well written Lenn- as a Social worker in a middle school I don't think there will be a charge of students to the computer lab to start ordering wine. Schools deal with computer issues everyday and believe me it isn't wine some(not all) kids are researching or ordering. It's not as exciting to "look" at or "listen to" over the internet as some things are... I think these surfers are alot more resourceful if they are tempted to aquire alcohol for themselves. Yes, underage drinking IS a concern, however I think there are other people and places we NEED to be concerned about that are impacting our youth where we could be expending this type energy. FMIL on her soap box.

[Mike]

I've had a couple of young guys approach me in supermarkets to buy alcohol for them. You tell them no way, that its illegal and that you could get into more trouble they they probably will, and they just laugh at you. I seriously doubt these guys would wait for the UPS guy to bring them wine, they wanted something a little stronger!

Mike

[credit card for students]

For parents, the new credit card act can indeed be a welcome change as the changes impose a reasonable limit to young credit cardholders without depriving them of their right to build up an early credit history.