A response to Sen. Jim Merritt

Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, wrote a letter in Wednesday’s paper decrying the “culture of binge drinking” on campuses and touting the Indiana Lifeline Law.

Our state legislature spends its time attacking gay rights, demolishing environmental protection, reducing funding to IU, promoting religious education in public schools, trying to put guns on campus and destroying unions.  

So the fact Merritt got the Senate and House to unanimously pass his Lifeline Law — an actually good idea — is pretty miraculous.

But alcohol laws remain deeply flawed. Although the Senator’s letter was heartfelt and appreciated by all of us saddened by Rachel Fiege’s death, it reflected these flaws.

Merritt clarifies his law will absolutely not “ease penalties for underage drinkers... (W)e made sure Indiana’s law did not provide legal protection or amnesty to the individual in need of medical attention so as not to give incentive to binge drink.”

Merritt is telling us if Rachael actually consumed alcohol — which is thus far unconfirmed — her friends had called the ambulance and she pulled through, she would’ve been slapped with an underage consumption ticket.

Therein lies the problem.

Fixing this law so the person with the medical emergency is not prosecuted won’t create an incentive to drink. Fact is, there’s not a lot of room for the number of underage drinkers to grow. Eight out of 10 college freshmen have consumed alcohol in spite of the threat of criminal sanction.   

Of course, the law wasn’t written for people like me.

I’d call an ambulance if someone needed one even if I had three illegal immigrants in my basement cooking meth with a stolen Bengal tiger cub.

But for some, I’d bet the threat that an underage friend might be prosecuted serves as a clear disincentive to reporting a problem.

All of this ignores the bigger problem: the “culture of binge drinking” is attributable to the strictness of our drinking laws.  

Americans over the age of 15 drink three-quarters as much as Europeans their age, but are much more likely to die due to binge drinking.

European teens can drink at bars where they legally purchase their drinks in public. American teens drink in less controlled situations, with illegal alcohol and no professional bartender to cut them off.

Think of how rare deaths at bars are, relative to those at house parties.

Moreover, American teens are criminals whether they drink one sip of a beer or take 10 shots. Why sip the beer?

If we want to end the “crisis of binge drinking” our best bet is to lower the drinking age, letting all college students move their drinking into public. At the very least, we can make our laws easier on minors who consume, especially if they’re already recovering from alcohol poisoning. At the same time, we can further strengthen penalties for truly dangerous activities like drunken driving.

Thank you, Senator, for taking the time to write your letter, and thank you for the Lifeline Law.

— shlumorg@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Luke Morgan on Twitter @flukemorgan.