Teens seek legislative help to curb underage drinking

DES MOINES – Dozens of Iowa teenagers and their advocates converged on the Statehouse Monday to urge state lawmakers not to expand the temptation for underage drinking.

George Belitsos, chief executive officer of Youth & Shelter Services, Inc., in Ames, said minors under the legal drinking age of 21 already have easy access to alcohol and he was concerned a bill seeking to allow hard liquor sales where gasoline is sold would exacerbate the problem.

Belitsos and others also expressed concern over legislation seeking to allow Iowa breweries and distillers to sell products with higher alcohol content and the lack of legislative interest in efforts to establish misdemeanor penalties for adult hosts who knowingly allow minors to consume alcohol on their property.

“We are ashamed of the fact that Iowa is in the top 10 for the states in the country that have the highest percent of binge drinking among our youth,” he said during a rally in the Capitol rotunda. “We want to ask our legislators to turn away from legislation that is going to make accessibility to alcohol even easier than it is now.”

Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals said House File 2381, if passed, would roughly double the number of establishments in Iowa that can sell hard liquor. Currently, Iowa law requires holders of a class E liquor license – such as convenience stores -- to have separate premises if they sell both alcohol and gasoline, but the proposed legislation would allow sales in the same premises.

“We believe that that will lead to more under-age drinking,” he said.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matthew Wilber said he hoped more officials in cities and counties would adopt local “social host” ordinances to fine adults who allow the consumption of alcohol by minors on their property.

“With underage parties, it's kind of like the field of bad dreams – if you host it, they will come,” Wilber said.

“I think it was local action on the keg registration that really forced the state Legislature to move on that issue,” he said. “I really think that if the state Legislature isn't going to move it by themselves, then we're going to have to start mobilizing locally and they'll deal with 50 or 60 different ordinances and eventually hopefully the Legislature will see that it's time to start holding the people who host these events responsible.”

Mike Hayslip, a rural Linn County coalition member, said he spent six years in prison for a vehicular homicide conviction related to an underage drinking episode that ended with a traffic mishap that killed two people.

“I have to wake up every day and look at myself in the mirror and remember that I am the person who took the lives of two people and destroyed so many lives,” he said. “At what cost are you willing to do it? Look around at these kids that are here today and decide which one of them you're willing to bury or send to prison.”

Jakki Olson, an Osage High School senior, said she was in a coma and on a hospital respirator for 12 hours in critical care after blacking out while binge drinking.

Belitsos said some of the interest in the pending legislation appeared to revolve around raising more state revenue. If that's the case, he said, legislators should consider raising the state excise tax on beer, which has been 19 cents per gallon since 1986.