<p>Ariesathena, you don’t recognize the same presumption of innocense to Native Americans who use peyote in their rituals?</p>
<p>Oldmom, your question makes no sense; I never discussed either the presumption of innocence or the religious use of peyote. That leaves about three words in your question (ie “you”, “the” and “in”) that are relevant to anything I wrote.</p>
<p>I agree with collegedad even though I posted something earlier this thread has gotten off track.</p>
<p>In NY, parents can give their own children alcohol beverages. BUT…if for ANY reason, the kid is stopped while driving and even a trace of alcohol is found, it is considered DWAI, really DWI, DUI, it all goes on the record as drinking and driving. I can guarantee you this as I have spent extensive hours in court and discussed and researched this ad nauseam. So, it is an issue when you give a kid a drink that might be driving that day. The courts do not care what the source or reason for the count. If it’s there, and the kid is driving, and there was reason to pull him over and test him, it’s drinking while driving if there is a drop that can be detected on the tests. </p>
<p>The thing about underage drinking as well as any number of things, it’s not so much the law on the books that is the issue, but how it is enforced. It can matter right down to the cop on the beat, the community, the jurisdiction, the asst DA who happens to be on the case, to the judge. Not so with drinking and driving. The movement been has been to be much stricter on the enforcement of those violations, and that is where the pressure has been with underage drinking. As i feel it should have been and should continue to be. The harsher consequences and less latitude in that regard has resulted in a drastic drop of drunk driver caused deaths.</p>
<p>I am closing this thread. Posts about religion are NOT allowed!</p>
<p>Is it possible to leave the thread open with a warning? I really want to hear from the OP about what happens with his son. It’s a shame that such a useful discussion got so derailed.</p>
<p>I agree with rockvillemom. Could the posts on legal exemptions for religious observation be divided and moved to the parent cafe? I’m sorry for any role I played in taking this thread off topic.</p>
<p>We could continue the DUI stuff in another thread.</p>
<p>Agree with RockvilleMom and MirabileDictu - this is a useful thread that is extremely relevant to parents of high school and college students, as well as to the students themselves.</p>
<p>So I wouldn’t mind raising the drinking age to 25. Meanwhile, I am thankful for the 27,000 people alive today, as well as the hundreds of thousands of serious injuries avoided, as a result of the change in the drinking age in the early 1980s. I also am glad that our 12-13 year olds, the average age at which teens who drink start drinking, find it at least a little more difficult to obtain alcohol as a result of the higher drinking age, especially as the liquor industry has made alcohol that much more desirable with alcopops and malt beverages.</p>
<p>I think folks should look at the links in post 531 very carefully if they want to know a little bit more about the impact of parents introducing their kids to alcohol in friendly, controlled, family environments.</p>
<p>Maybe I missed this, but I haven’t seen that your son has figured out a way to get to and from his proposed speeches. Clearly he can’t drive. I would think the DA or judge will raise this if you don’t.</p>
<p>WBUR On Point with Tom Ashbrook recently devoted a radiocast to drunk driving and discussed some issues raised in this thread: [Should</a> The U.S. Lower The Legal Blood Alcohol Limit? | On Point with Tom Ashbrook](<a href=“http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/05/29/blood-alcohol-level]Should”>http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/05/29/blood-alcohol-level)</p>
<p>Woodworker, the kid can (a)walk, (b) ride a bike, (c) take a bus, (d) take a cab, or (e) get a ride with someone else. Just about everyone with a DUI has some sort of license suspension, short or long. The courts tend to demonstrate very little sympathy to someone who claims that they can’t get somewhere (such as court-mandated counseling) because of transportation problems. The converse is that a judge should be ready to believe that a healthy young man can get from point A to point B without getting behind the wheel of a car.</p>
<p>^^^ That really depends on where said healthy young man happens to live. There are parts of the country where there are no busses or cabs, and distances are way too far for biking and walking. A person’s options become very limited if he always needs to beg favors for rides.</p>
<p>NorthCarolinaDad, any updates? Thinking of you and your family…</p>
<p>Mih, no, a person’s options become limited when he or she makes the incredibly stupid decision to drink without knowing how he or she is getting home.</p>
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<p>Wow, those must be some really far distances. I guess he’ll just have to walk over to the home of [his</a> track teammate who lives within a mile](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15983696-post409.html]his”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15983696-post409.html). I’m curious, how far is too far to bike?</p>
<p>Just think how being jailed for killing someone whwile driving drunk would limit his choices. Seriously, having to ask for a ride does not seem like such a big deal.</p>
<p>I have a friend who lost their job because their license was suspended for three months. H kneww someone who walked over 10 miles to and from a part time job in our no-public-transportation area because his license as suspended. Those are the breaks when a person chooses to drive drunk.</p>
<p>In Florida it is illegal for minors to drink, even at home in their parents presence. This raises another issue: kds are afraid to call 911 when their friends get intoxicated. I never thought of that until my son brought it up. Actually I never thought people in his class drunk so much (he does not drink, neither do I or my husband), until one day he call me at 1:00 am saying he was going to be late because a friend was really sick and he was waiting for his parents to pick him up (the mother was surprise when she hear that her son drank).At home he told me that he saw a few of his classmates parked outside a pizza place where he had gone after a party to get something to eat. One of them was in a severe state of intoxication but no one would call 911 because they were afraid they would take him to jail after the hospital. My question is: Should we have some type of exception to the law that allows kids to seek medical care without worrying about jail?Aren’t we promoting more kids driving intoxicated because they are too afraid to seek medical help? BTW my son school has a very aggressive anti- alcohol program that starts in 7th grade and is repeated yearly until 11th. It consists of seminars, speakers, parent meetings, role playing,etc. Why do you think it does little to stop kids from drinking?</p>
<p>Many states have an immunity law for alcohol and drugs, if you report somebody who is in need of medical attention then you are immune (don’t know details of law and I assume it varies from state to state). NJ just passed one (after some tweaking for Christie who opposed some of the terms of the original law).</p>