Ridgewood adjusting code covering underage drinking
Thursday, January 26, 2012 Last updated: Friday January 27, 2012, 1:27 AM
BY JOSEPH CRAMER
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Village code covering underage drinking on private property may soon include a New Jersey amnesty law in an effort to increase awareness of the policy among local teenagers and mitigate drinking-related medical emergencies.
The village is trying to increase awareness of an amnesty policy granting immunity to underage children if they call authorities in drinking-related medical emergencies.
The law, which grants immunity to underage children from prosecution for consuming alcohol if they call authorities for assistance in cases of drinking-related medical emergencies, was passed in 2009 in an attempt to eliminate the hesitation minors feel to reach out to medical and police authorities because of potential legal charges they might face. The law, however, does not apply directly to instances of underage consumption on private property.
An amendment to the village code, which does address drinking on private property, would change that in Ridgewood.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/138181969_Code_change_aimed_at_putting_safety_first.html
7 comments:
It's a bad law and now they are working out the exceptions. Police should not be allowed to enter private property without the owner's consent.
Get the government out of our homes.
The minimum age needs to be lowered to 18. The USA is one of only two non-Muslim nations with a population over 5 million in the entire world that have 21 as the minimum age for drinking (Sri Lanka is the other). Kids can drink beer at 16 in Germany, which is more crowded than the US, and it dowesn't seem to have hurt their ability to compete in a global economy.
No immunity for those caught drinking tasteless light beer.
This immunity has one and only one purpose, keep teens alive when they make teen mistakes
Will they still contact the schools? Without parental permission the police report back to the school on these matters.
The main problem is the age being 21, which is incredibly unfair. You can serve in the military, be a parent, married, vote, reside in your own place and pay taxes at 18 but not have a beer?
What would happen if the Village law was challenged in court? Do the police have the right to enter a private residence when they suspect there is underage drinking on the basis that they have "probable cause" or is the existing local law the only thing that gives them that right in most cases? Ridgewood High School's "Code of Conduct" quietly disappeared after a very similar policy at Ramapo HS was deemed unconstitutional when challenged by a parent in a court of law. It would be interesting to see if the same thing would happen if the Village law on entering homes was challenged in court.
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