How to Lose Your License Without Really Trying
Careful about doling out glasses of spiked eggnog to the college-aged kids in your family this Christmas. A glassful could cost you your license, even if no one gets near a car.
North Carolina is taking bans on booze to a new level as part of a passel of legislation that also bans alcohol inhalers and changes requirements for ankle bracelets for boozers:
As of Saturday, people can lose their driver's licenses for providing alcohol to anyone under 21. The penalty is important because many underage drinkers get alcohol from friends or family members, said Craig Lloyd, the executive director of the North Carolina chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The law means that, theoretically, parents could be punished for giving a glass of wine to their 20-year-old son or daughter, even if the 20-year-old never gets behind the wheel.
Lloyd said that's not excessive.
More on the excesses of Mothers Against Drunk Driving from our November print issue here.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
In Judaism the blessing of wine (and at least sipping thereof) is a normal Friday evening ritual. Most parents allow their children a little sip, at least. There is no evidence it leads either to alcoholism, or to drunk driving. But who cares?
I assume MADD is on the case and will be hauling all North Carolinian Jews off to face a judge Saturday mornings.
Geez!
The best part of buying beer from my roommates is pocketing the change. I'm basically paying my way through college with it.
I dread the day they figure out that a 6-pack doesn't cost $30
The downside is that doing it kind of makes me feel like Matthew McConaughey 's character from Dazed and Confused.
21 is a ridiculous age to start with. Here the legal drinking age is 18, and in practice, it's pretty much just a suggestion.
Things are crazy indeed when the moralistic laws of Texas look sane compared to other states. In Texas, a parent can get their children blotto if they want as long as they don't end up in the emergency room.
The whole 21 drinking age makes me wonder if were backtracking on lowering the age of majority to 18 back in the 70's. It seems to me that the boomers are rethinking the entire project now that they have kids as dumb and impulsive as they were.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't North Carolina pioneer the laws allowing police to permanently seize the cars of people arrested for DUI's?
Fucking fascists! I'm afraid to go out anymore...
oooo, I can just taste it. This thread is about to explode
North Carolina also is the only state that I know of where you have to go to court (you can't waive your appearance) if you were going 10 over in a 65 (easy to do on 95) or 15 over anywhere. Of course if you pay a local lawyer to to waive your appearance for you then you don't have to show up.
Craig Lloyd?!?! More like Mister Mothers Against...
I thought there was some kind of provision or blind spot allowing parents to give their own children alcohol (not others' kids, just their own). Now that I read what I just wrote I realize that is too reasonable to be true. So, there is absolutely no legal way for a minor to learn any kind of reasonable consumption habits until they're 21? Then its a free for all? Maybe there should be a starter license at 21 that allows a certain number of beers per night before they graduate to full alcohol rights at 25 or 30? Sounds like a plan!
YOU lose your license!
YOU lose your license!
How long until they arrest priests for giving mass to underaged celebrants? Will MADD be staking out Lutheran churches? No more wine at Bar Mitzvahs?
I have this sudden religious urge to whack a MADD member over the head with a beer bottle...
I assume MADD is on the case and will be hauling all North Carolinian Jews off to face a judge Saturday mornings.
First ya gotta find 'em. Jews comprise less than 0.5% of the NC population.
MADD seems an appropriate name......
As of Saturday, people can lose their driver's licenses for providing alcohol to anyone under 21. The penalty is important because many underage drinkers get alcohol from friends or family members, said Craig Lloyd, the executive director of the North Carolina chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
...Lloyd said that's not excessive.
It may be hard to believe, but I've been trying to cut down on foul, mean spirited, obscene posts lately.
So____damned______hard_____sometimes.
Fuck it! Fuck MADD. Those pimples on the boil on the ass of a crack whore, can take their insipid, puritan fellating, freedon hating campaigns, roll them up really tight and insert them up their collective ass sideways.
And now, back to the kinder, gentler J sub D.
North Carolina also is the only state that I know of where you have to go to court (you can't waive your appearance) if you were going 10 over in a 65 (easy to do on 95) or 15 over anywhere.
When I was just a Taktito in high school, in Raleigh, I had to go to court for a ticket. The offense?
Going 40 in a fucking 35!!!
This sort of thing makes me really think that society is hopeless, completely hopeless.
This sort of thing makes me really think that society is hopeless, completely hopeless.
Yeah, reading H&R sometimes feels like finding out there's no Santa.
It's good to know the truth, but you die a little inside...
"America is at that akward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to start shooting the bastards."
- Claire Wolfe
Taktix -
It's a lot like that, actually. Especially the Radley Balko posts... damn those are depressing.
I make a motion to raise the legal age for joining the United States armed forces to 21, with nobody younger being grandfathered in.
I make a motion to cap the voting eligible age at 55, with nobody older being grandfathered in.
Goddamn it Taktix!! Whaddaya mean there is no Santa? Am I still getting my home theater system with the KEF surround sound system or not?!!
(I am! Tee-Hee!)
I just bet Lloyd Craig is a hoot at partys!
or Craig Lloyd even!
Yeah, reading H&R sometimes feels like finding out there's no Santa
I often wonder why the editors here focus on all the depressing stuff while rarely posting libertarian victories. The site often has an air of snarky resignation, as if all is lost. The Reason I subscribed to years ago was optimistic. What happened?
Animal-rights activists supported those two laws, although an official with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said yesterday that she objects to the idea that certain animals, such as police dogs, should be elevated above ordinary companion animals.
"If somebody kills a police dog, yes, I'd like to see them charged with a felony, but I'd also like to see anybody who kills an animal be charged with a felony," said Stephanie Bell, the senior cruelty case worker in PETA's cruelty investigations department, which tracks state legislation.
Bell said that anyone who willfully kills an animal - which is defined by state statute as mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds - should go to prison.
No comment
So, where are we on the Prohibition Clock? Anywhere near midnight?
Shouldn't they just lose the last D?
I often wonder why the editors here focus on all the depressing stuff while rarely posting libertarian victories.
Such as...?
Words of wisdom, Lloyd. Words...of...wisdom. (drink)
The Reason I subscribed to years ago was optimistic. What happened?
Three words:
George Dubya Bush
Up next: you must keep your alcohol in a locked vault if anyone under age 21 resides in or visits your home. Then later: you won't be given the combination to the vault; you'll have to call a member of MADD to come and unlock the vault after determining that no one under 21 will be present while you imbibe.
Up next: you must keep your alcohol in a locked vault if anyone under age 21 resides in or visits your home. Then later: you won't be given the combination to the vault; you'll have to call a member of MADD to come and unlock the vault after determining that no one under 21 will be present while you imbibe.
Just imagine, gangs of renegade safe-crackers, roaming the streets with tommy guns...
DAMM!
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2006/12/30/drunks-against-mad-mothers/
The whole age-based approach to alcohol control has never made any sense to me. Most of our society's alcohol problems are caused by the rowdy and disorderly conduct of intoxicated members of the lower economic classes and illegal immigrants.
A better approach would be state issued alcohol purchase licenses, which would be made available only to those responsible citizens who could demonstrate income above $75,000 per year.
I'm 18. At home in Texas, I regularly will have a glass of wine with my parents, and they give restaurants permission to serve me with them when we go out to eat.
At school in New York, I can't have a glass of wine at dinner with my parents, but I can go to a frat and get wasted off of shitty beer, if I wanted too.
Eggnog is fantastic. And now I have a craving for it. And it isn't particularly good for you.
Darn you, KMW, and your link-to-an-article-about-eggnog-ness.
BTW, there was a study comparing patterns of alcoholism among different cultures. It included a study of Irish and Italian immigrants.
In both cultures, there was a lot of consumption of alcohol. The Italians let their kids drink while young, but frowned on adult drunkenness. Among the Irish, drinking alcohol was forbidden to children, but adult drunkenness was tolerated.
The rate of alcoholism among the Irish is seven times the rate for Italians.
J,
Them thar's fightin' words.
Fucking North Carolina MADD Nazis. I *hate* North Carolina Nazis. If there were any justice in this world, someone would take a hammer to Craig Lloyd's balls.
Things are crazy indeed when the moralistic laws of Texas look sane compared to other states.
Texas has a pretty hard-core "leave me alone" streak that is only grudgingly giving way to nanny-staters of any political persuasion.
Bell said that anyone who willfully kills an animal - which is defined by state statute as mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds - should go to prison.
If she puts in an exception for killing animals in order to eat them, we can talk.
"What are you looking at?" The innocent words of a drunken child.
The whole age-based approach to alcohol control has never made any sense to me. Most of our society's alcohol problems are caused by the rowdy and disorderly conduct of intoxicated members of the lower economic classes and illegal immigrants.
A better approach would be state issued alcohol purchase licenses, which would be made available only to those responsible citizens who could demonstrate income above $75,000 per year.
Oh yes...wait, WHAT?
How long until they arrest priests for giving mass to underaged celebrants?
I think you mean underaged *communicants*. The celebrant is the priest.
"America is at that akward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to start shooting the bastards."
Are you sure about that last part?
I'm driving drunk tonight.
Come and stop me, you fuckers.
Three words:
George Dubya Bush
The theme of this decade for me thus far has been believing "Oh, well, theres no way things can get screwed up even more" and being proven wrong again and again.
I think you mean underaged *communicants*. The celebrant is the priest.
I hope that both of them are celebrant. (get it? GETIT?)
"The rate of alcoholism among the Irish is seven times the rate for Italians."
**HIC** And you needed to read a study for that conclusion?!? **HIC**
RTFA. At the end it said they made it legal to have animals track a caged rodent thru a tunnel.
When it is time to start shooting those bastards, this will make an excellent soundtrack.
Damm is right
http://pauliecannoli.wordpress.com/2006/12/30/drunks-against-mad-mothers/
30 dead in Ohio in 2005.
How many prosecuted for the potential to harm unknown and unknowable "victims" that year?
I'd be interested in seeing what would happen in a new era of alcohol prohibition (that is what it's all about).
Last time it led to a boost in organized crime. But the government now has enough resources to squash that before it takes off. OTOH, the information and inexpensive technology now available to individual 'moonshiners' could counteract that, making for some wild times ahead.
MADD is evil, just fucking evil.
Eh, what the heck do I know about Catholicism? I'm a Calvinist! That's why I'm currently drinking a quart bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. What am I celebrating? The fact that Calvin remains dead! I suspect that we wouldn't have MADD or had prohibition, if only Calvin drunk more. Geez, that man was so dry Luther used him to stir martinis.
the one thing i always wondered about calvinism, especially raised catholic, is what the heck is the point? if your predestined to either go to heaven or hell, what does it matter what you do with your life. at least luther had a point, that since the 16th century catholic leadership had been corrupted by power, just go around it, and you'll still be ok.
"""So, where are we on the Prohibition Clock? Anywhere near midnight?"""
The hand will stop as 1 minute till. The government doesn't want prohibition. It want to makes money from the penalties of use and taxes. The same is being done on smokes. It's all about creating new ways to produce revenue on legal products and expanding control over the citizenry.
Prohibition is unAmerican, how many more constitutional amendments do we need to prove it?
Last time it led to a boost in organized crime. But the government now has enough resources to squash that before it takes off.
See here for an example.