Post by admin on Jan 26, 2008 8:25:04 GMT -5
Freehold Borough had considered this type of ordinance. This is a follow through piece pertaining to it elsewhere.
www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/NEWS/801260360/1070
A short-lived effort by towns across the state to curb underage drinking has stalled, leaving activists pondering initiatives including stricter penalties for minors, more consistent checks on retailers and statewide legislation regulating keg purchases.
"There's a need to make people accountable," Belmar Police Chief Jack Hill said.
As chairman of the Monmouth County Chiefs of Police Association's alcohol beverage control committee, Hill had spearheaded an effort to pass beer keg registration ordinances in the county's municipalities. The ordinances required that some kind of tag or label be affixed to kegs, and that the retailer and the buyer provide identifying information, such as addresses.
The hope was that purchasers, knowing the keg could be traced back to them, would think twice before serving minors.
"Keg registration is one part of a wide-ranging response to underage drinking," said Dan Meara, spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. "It's a step, and that's all you can do."
The state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control estimates that about a dozen municipalities statewide have passed beer keg registration ordinances in recent years.
In March, Belmar became the first town in Monmouth County to introduce a tagging ordinance. Others, includingShrewsbury, Matawan, Aberdeen and Freehold Township, soon followed suit.
Several Shore towns ? including Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights ? considered enacting ordinances, but ultimately dropped the idea.
It turns out those towns were right.
In October, the director of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control division, Jerry Fischer, put a halt to municipal efforts with an advisory opinion that said the ordinances could not be approved because of their possible implications.
For one, what would happen if someone purchased a keg in a town that did not require registration, but then brought it into a town that did? That person could be charged, even though he or she bought the keg lawfully, Fischer said.
Liquor retailers operating in towns without tagging rules might be forced to follow the regulations anyway if they wanted to continue serving patrons in towns that required tagging, Fischer said.
"This again may have a noble intent, to perhaps encourage more municipalities to enact keg ordinances to avoid a loss of patronage, but the fact remains that it is not the province of one municipal governing body to impose its will and decisions upon another," Fischer wrote.
Since Fischer's opinion was issued, at least three towns ? Freehold Township, Matawan and Red Bank ? have repealed their tagging ordinances, and others have said they are also considering taking their ordinances off the books.
"We have no choice but to repeal them," Hill said.
For the moment, many officials say they have simply decided not to enforce the ordinances.
Push for state law
Since the opinion was issued, activists have begun looking in new directions to achieve their goal of keeping alcohol away from minors. Some are pinning their hopes on state lawmakers. Fischer said it was his opinion that an initiative by the Legislature would be a better way to bring keg registration to New Jersey.
State legislation always made the most sense anyway, Meara said. Fischer's opinion might be the push legislators needed, he said.
"Maybe some good can come out of this decision," Meara said.
Keg registration bills have already been introduced in both the state Senate and the Assembly.
The Assembly bill, which died with the end of the last legislative session, was reintroduced Jan. 8 by Assemblymen Jack Connors and Herb Conaway Jr., both D-Burlington, and Assemblyman Douglas H. Fisher, D-Gloucester. It has been referred to the Assembly's Law and Public Safety Committee.
A similar Senate bill, introduced by then-Sen. Ellen M. Karcher, D-Monmouth, and Sen. Shirley K. Turner, D-Mercer, also died in the last session. Turner said she plans to reintroduce the legislation.
"(Keg registration) is one way to curtail the underage drinking that is plaguing our minors," Turner said.
At Max's Beer, Wine & Liquor in Freehold Township, the store tries to do just that by keeping a record of who buys a keg, how soon it is returned after purchase and if the same person brings it back, manager Dan Higgins said.
"I feel it's not a very big issue," said Higgins, speaking of his store's dealings with underage persons. "We don't run into too many problems."
But if a law was passed, Max's would comply, Higgins said.
"It does create a little more paperwork," he said.
Some county chapters of the New Jersey Prevention Network have begun pushing their towns to pass resolutions in favor of state legislation, spokesman Rob Lightfoot said.
If New Jersey required statewide keg registration, it would be the 13th state to do so, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
"They (state officials) need to step up to the plate," Hill said.
Tagging opposition
For some agencies, the hope is that the state will focus on different ways to curb underage drinking that do not involve keg tagging.
The New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance, for example, has been against registration since the idea was first discussed.
Retailers believed customers would consider registration too onerous a process. Tagging would shift purchasers from kegs to canned beer and to liquor, said Joe DeSanctis, a lobbyist for the group.
"We felt that this (requirement) did not curtail underage drinking," DeSanctis said.
Members of the alliance have been meeting with activists from the New Jersey Prevention Network and state officials to seek stricter penalties for the underage drinkers themselves, rather than those who serve them.
Those punishments could include increased fines for first-time offenders and a longer period of driver's license suspension, DeSanctis said.
Currently, minors caught drinking or buying alcohol in an establishment with an alcohol beverage license could be fined $500 and lose their driver's licenses for six months. Underage drivers who have any detectable amount of alcohol in their system could lose or have postponed their driving privileges for 30 to 90 days, be ordered to serve 15 to 30 days of community service and have to participate in an alcohol education and highway safety program.
DeSanctis hopes to have legislation imposing stricter punishments introduced by February, he said.
At Prevention Plus of Burlington County, executive director Don Starn said his organization has begun pursuing several new efforts to curb underage drinking. These include a state law holding minors responsible for drinking on private property. Now, just hosts are liable, Starn said.
Starn's group also is pushing for more consistent statewide checks to ensure retailers are not serving minors; an increase in taxes on so-called "alco-pops' (sweet alcoholic drinks favored by teenage girls); and the enactment of laws that would protect from punishment a youth who calls for emergency help when another minor becomes ill from drinking.
"There's no silver bullet that's going to fix the problem (of underage drinking)," Starn said. "It's a matter of putting as many things in place as possible."
Kim Predham: (732) 308-7752 or kpredham@app.com
www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/NEWS/801260360/1070
A short-lived effort by towns across the state to curb underage drinking has stalled, leaving activists pondering initiatives including stricter penalties for minors, more consistent checks on retailers and statewide legislation regulating keg purchases.
"There's a need to make people accountable," Belmar Police Chief Jack Hill said.
As chairman of the Monmouth County Chiefs of Police Association's alcohol beverage control committee, Hill had spearheaded an effort to pass beer keg registration ordinances in the county's municipalities. The ordinances required that some kind of tag or label be affixed to kegs, and that the retailer and the buyer provide identifying information, such as addresses.
The hope was that purchasers, knowing the keg could be traced back to them, would think twice before serving minors.
"Keg registration is one part of a wide-ranging response to underage drinking," said Dan Meara, spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. "It's a step, and that's all you can do."
The state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control estimates that about a dozen municipalities statewide have passed beer keg registration ordinances in recent years.
In March, Belmar became the first town in Monmouth County to introduce a tagging ordinance. Others, includingShrewsbury, Matawan, Aberdeen and Freehold Township, soon followed suit.
Several Shore towns ? including Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights ? considered enacting ordinances, but ultimately dropped the idea.
It turns out those towns were right.
In October, the director of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control division, Jerry Fischer, put a halt to municipal efforts with an advisory opinion that said the ordinances could not be approved because of their possible implications.
For one, what would happen if someone purchased a keg in a town that did not require registration, but then brought it into a town that did? That person could be charged, even though he or she bought the keg lawfully, Fischer said.
Liquor retailers operating in towns without tagging rules might be forced to follow the regulations anyway if they wanted to continue serving patrons in towns that required tagging, Fischer said.
"This again may have a noble intent, to perhaps encourage more municipalities to enact keg ordinances to avoid a loss of patronage, but the fact remains that it is not the province of one municipal governing body to impose its will and decisions upon another," Fischer wrote.
Since Fischer's opinion was issued, at least three towns ? Freehold Township, Matawan and Red Bank ? have repealed their tagging ordinances, and others have said they are also considering taking their ordinances off the books.
"We have no choice but to repeal them," Hill said.
For the moment, many officials say they have simply decided not to enforce the ordinances.
Push for state law
Since the opinion was issued, activists have begun looking in new directions to achieve their goal of keeping alcohol away from minors. Some are pinning their hopes on state lawmakers. Fischer said it was his opinion that an initiative by the Legislature would be a better way to bring keg registration to New Jersey.
State legislation always made the most sense anyway, Meara said. Fischer's opinion might be the push legislators needed, he said.
"Maybe some good can come out of this decision," Meara said.
Keg registration bills have already been introduced in both the state Senate and the Assembly.
The Assembly bill, which died with the end of the last legislative session, was reintroduced Jan. 8 by Assemblymen Jack Connors and Herb Conaway Jr., both D-Burlington, and Assemblyman Douglas H. Fisher, D-Gloucester. It has been referred to the Assembly's Law and Public Safety Committee.
A similar Senate bill, introduced by then-Sen. Ellen M. Karcher, D-Monmouth, and Sen. Shirley K. Turner, D-Mercer, also died in the last session. Turner said she plans to reintroduce the legislation.
"(Keg registration) is one way to curtail the underage drinking that is plaguing our minors," Turner said.
At Max's Beer, Wine & Liquor in Freehold Township, the store tries to do just that by keeping a record of who buys a keg, how soon it is returned after purchase and if the same person brings it back, manager Dan Higgins said.
"I feel it's not a very big issue," said Higgins, speaking of his store's dealings with underage persons. "We don't run into too many problems."
But if a law was passed, Max's would comply, Higgins said.
"It does create a little more paperwork," he said.
Some county chapters of the New Jersey Prevention Network have begun pushing their towns to pass resolutions in favor of state legislation, spokesman Rob Lightfoot said.
If New Jersey required statewide keg registration, it would be the 13th state to do so, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
"They (state officials) need to step up to the plate," Hill said.
Tagging opposition
For some agencies, the hope is that the state will focus on different ways to curb underage drinking that do not involve keg tagging.
The New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance, for example, has been against registration since the idea was first discussed.
Retailers believed customers would consider registration too onerous a process. Tagging would shift purchasers from kegs to canned beer and to liquor, said Joe DeSanctis, a lobbyist for the group.
"We felt that this (requirement) did not curtail underage drinking," DeSanctis said.
Members of the alliance have been meeting with activists from the New Jersey Prevention Network and state officials to seek stricter penalties for the underage drinkers themselves, rather than those who serve them.
Those punishments could include increased fines for first-time offenders and a longer period of driver's license suspension, DeSanctis said.
Currently, minors caught drinking or buying alcohol in an establishment with an alcohol beverage license could be fined $500 and lose their driver's licenses for six months. Underage drivers who have any detectable amount of alcohol in their system could lose or have postponed their driving privileges for 30 to 90 days, be ordered to serve 15 to 30 days of community service and have to participate in an alcohol education and highway safety program.
DeSanctis hopes to have legislation imposing stricter punishments introduced by February, he said.
At Prevention Plus of Burlington County, executive director Don Starn said his organization has begun pursuing several new efforts to curb underage drinking. These include a state law holding minors responsible for drinking on private property. Now, just hosts are liable, Starn said.
Starn's group also is pushing for more consistent statewide checks to ensure retailers are not serving minors; an increase in taxes on so-called "alco-pops' (sweet alcoholic drinks favored by teenage girls); and the enactment of laws that would protect from punishment a youth who calls for emergency help when another minor becomes ill from drinking.
"There's no silver bullet that's going to fix the problem (of underage drinking)," Starn said. "It's a matter of putting as many things in place as possible."
Kim Predham: (732) 308-7752 or kpredham@app.com