News

September 23, 2007

Desire to get alcohol drives minors to get creative, data show

Even if it’s difficult for underage partiers to get alcohol at clubs and bars, they’re able to get it elsewhere.

In 2006, the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement arrested 2,079 minors for underage drinking. Nearly 1,400 have been arrested through July of this year. Almost 800 liters of liquor have been seized this year so far, along with 250 liters of wine and more than 1,700 gallons of beer.

So who’s supplying all that booze?

Of-age relatives and acquaintances might be prime culprits, but statistics show that conventional methods, such as sidling up to a bar stool or walking into a liquor distributor, are also likely, particularly in this region.

For 2006, the most recent statistics available, the bureau’s top violation by liquor licensees was sales to minors. Of the 682 violations, the Wilkes-Barre regional office, one of nine throughout the state, generated 138. That’s second only to the 155 from the Philadelphia office.

Through July of this year, the local office made 130 compliance checks, during which state police send underage volunteers into licensed establishments to try to buy alcohol. Fifty-nine businesses passed; 71 didn’t.

And it’s not always that alcohol purveyors fail to check identification. As with many enduring clashes, the firepower has escalated. Fake IDs used to look good, but wouldn’t stand up to rigorous inspections, such as scanning the magnetic barcode on the back.

“Now they do,” said Mary Lou Hogan, the executive secretary counsel for the state Malt Beverage Distributors Association. “Now the false IDs have gotten so good that the only way to detect them is (to check the hologram) with a black light.”

“It’s through deception that most of these kids get it, in my opinion. … I’m surprised at the sophistication,” Wilkes-Barre police Chief Gerry Dessoye said.

“I don’t think any licensee wants to sell to anyone under 21,” Hogan said. “But it is a matter of how much time and effort you’re willing to put into it, and I think the distributors go the extra mile in that sense.”

Distributors’ responsibility ends when the product leaves the property, and the MBDA doesn’t support a keg registration plan that’s been legislated in other states, including New York and Maryland. Such plans generally require that the buyer of a keg of beer provide valid ID with a name and address, and that information is written on a tag affixed to the keg.

Hogan said that while such laws reduce keg sales, sales of cases increase, suggesting that offenders simply switch the product they’re supplying. “We’ve never seen it deter underage drinking,” she said.

Dessoye said he hasn’t seen any reports on the effectiveness of such laws, but he was concerned that it would create a daunting amount of legal red tape for law enforcement officers to produce convictions.

Though he said it wasn’t in reaction to any recognized “plague of underage drinkers,” this year, his department obtained an $11,500 Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board grant to create the Underage Drinking Deterrence Patrol. The money pays for off-duty officers to work overtime reconnoitering places suspected of underage drinking and busting the violators. The officers have prime targets identified, and “generally we concentrate on particular areas on a given night,” he said.

The patrol is already having an effect on partying habits of city college students. About two weeks ago, two of-age Wilkes University students were arrested on charges of selling or furnishing alcohol to minors, and students of both Wilkes and King’s College were among 54 people cited for underage drinking at two separate off-campus parties.

If the charges stand, the students will likely face sanctions from their school. Representatives for both institutions said off-campus charges trigger punishments from the school, including fines, probation and notification of guardians.

Despite education initiatives and enforcement crackdowns, Dessoye said the issue won’t be eliminated, but its effects can be minimized.

“We’ve always faced problems with underage drinkers. I think any college town faces that,” he said. “As bad and as much as I discourage people from consuming alcohol underage, I am much more adamant in my warnings that if you do it, at least, please, please don’t drive. … You’re putting a lot of other people in jeopardy for a decision … which they have no choice to make.”

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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