A recent ruling by Maryland's highest court is another battle won in the war against underage drinking.
The state's Court of Appeals ruled that adults, who still don't think there's anything wrong with giving underage people alcoholic beverages at parties in their homes, may be held responsible under civil law. It's been a crime in Maryland for a couple of decades for adults to provide alcoholic beverages to those not old enough to drink it legally.
This ruling allows people, who feel they've been aggrieved by an adult who provided alcohol to someone underage, to take civil action.
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs and an advocate against drunk driving, in a Baltimore Sun story last week, made the issue of underage drinking painfully clear.
"The criminal penalty has been on the books for a while, and it still happens," Adam P. Janet, a plaintiff's attorney, said. "This is one more disincentive."
Lisa Spicknall, director of the Maryland branch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said some parents think they are keeping their kids safer by allowing them to drink at home instead of elsewhere. But that's just not true, she said.
"Reality shows that children die each and every day in impaired driving crashes caused by underage drinkers leaving parties that are hosted by parents," Spicknall said.
While the two cases the Court of Appeals cited were from Baltimore and Howard counties, not Harford, the scenarios could just have easily played out in our county. We have had numerous cases in which adults have allowed their teenage children to have such parties that got out of hand. Police were called and the adult homeowners were charged.
And yet, as Spicknall said, the partying goes on and there are still some supposed grown-ups that don't get it. There's a reason young people shouldn't be taking intoxicants – they're not equipped to handle them.
Janet, the lawyer for one of the plaintiffs in one of the cases heard by the Court of Appeals, said: "The Court of Appeals recognized what we all know: Individuals that are underage lack the judgment and competence to decide whether to drink."
Furthermore, it's a terribly mixed message for young people to hear from many adults, throughout their formative and school years, that drinking is bad for them, only to hear from adults close to them that it's OK for them to drink.
Oftentimes, it's either their parents or a friend's parents supplying the alcohol and saying go ahead and drink, we know you can handle it.
The reality is they can't handle it and when underage people drink, even in the illusory safety of their home or a friend's, odds are something bad is going to happen.
With civil penalties added to the fight against underage drinking, perhaps more adults will begin to think it's wrong to give kids alcoholic beverages.