Anyone who has been to a college campus on a weekend night knows that criminal penalties don’t do much to stop underage drinking. Fortunately, the District of Columbia has stopped imposing these unnecessarily penalties for the possession of alcohol by a minor.
Under a temporary law passed by the District of Columbia Council in July, the Metropolitan Police Department has been unable to arrest minors simply for possessing or drinking alcohol. Instead, they can only impose civil penalties, which include a mandatory alcohol education program, a fine of up to $300, and suspension of a driver’s license for 90 days. Tuesday, the Council voted to make that law permanent.
“There is no reason to criminalize-arrest-a young adult holding a can of beer in his back yard,” Phil Mendelson, a council member who authored an amendment to the law, said in a press release. “The punishment should fit the crime.”
Mendelson is right. Under the old law, if an underage student was caught drinking, he or she would face a night in jail and a criminal record. And that’s not all. Once a student has a criminal record, he or she is required to report those offenses on all future college applications and many job applications.
According to Michael Glick (CAS ‘05), a member of the FRIENDS Initiative, 20 percent of Georgetown students don’t drink-which means that 80 percent of them do. Students shouldn’t face lifelong punishment for doing something that is normal in many of their social circles.
This law doesn’t legalize underage drinking by any means. Buying alcohol and using a fake ID, whether to buy alcohol or to enter a bar or club, are still criminal offenses, as are public consumption of alcohol and public drunkenness. Moreover, a $300 fine isn’t exactly getting off easy. But the law does remove the lifelong stigma of a criminal record that plagues every Georgetown student who was arrested in D.C. before July.
The law must still be signed by Mayor Anthony Williams and approved by the U.S. Congress within 45 days. Williams and Congress should act to rectify a situation that criminalizes a majority of Georgetown students.
