Senate committee and teenage lobbyists oppose drugs and alcohol

INDIANAPOLIS -- A state Senate committee endorsed a bill Tuesday that would strengthen Indiana's open-container law and negate millions of dollars in federal penalties.\nMeanwhile, about 300 teenagers from across Indiana roamed the Statehouse and urged legislators to crack down more on drugs, alcohol and drunken driving.\nIan Nixon, a 17-year-old senior at Southmont High School near Crawfordsville, Ind., said the students were being heard, even among the older, professional lobbyists.\n"I think it's really refreshing for (lawmakers) to see this many youth that really do care about issues going on in their communities," Nixon said. "They talk to adults every day, but not every day do they see 300 kids in the Rotunda."\nIn a room about 50 feet away, the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee voted 7-1 to approve a bill that would bring Indiana's open-container law into compliance with federal guidelines. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.\nUnder the state law enacted in 1994, a person drinking in a vehicle alone can be charged with an infraction and fined up to $1,000. Stiffer penalties exist for drivers who are impaired or intoxicated.\nBut if there are others in the car with open containers of alcohol, the drivers face open-container fines only if they have a blood-alcohol content of .04 percent or higher.\nSen. Thomas Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, said the law was practically unenforceable because police officers would rarely take steps needed to prove a driver's blood-alcohol content just to issue an open-container ticket.\nThe bill would remove the blood-alcohol provision and subject drivers to fines up to $1,000 if there are any open containers of alcohol in the passenger sections of vehicles.\nBecause current state law does not match federal guidelines, Indiana has been forced to transfer $27 million in federal highway money over the past three years to alcohol-enforcement activities or to specific, hazard elimination activities.\nThrough the bureaucratic process of the transfers, the state lost $1.6 million in federal highway money over the past two federal fiscal years and could lose as much as $3.5 million this year, according to the Legislative Services Agency.\nRepublican Sen. Robert Meeks of LaGrange, Ind., a former state trooper, voted for the bill but likened the federal penalties to blackmailing the state.\n"Sometimes I think we ought to say what is good for Indiana without the federal government standing on top of us with a hammer," Meeks said. "It's our money."\nThe teenagers visited the Statehouse as part of an annual youth summit sponsored by the Youth Division of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. Their motto was "26 years of the population, 100 percent of the future."\nThey had their own recommendations for new laws, including tax increases on alcohol, drug testing for students and staff in schools, and requiring ignition interlock devices to be installed in the cars of people with multiple drunken-driving convictions.