Wednesday night, I came home at 10pm from the Morgan Hill city council meeting and announced to my husband, “Well, if the cops come by a party at our house and find underage drinking, we’re gonna be fined.” My husband’s response? “Congratulations!” (The congratulations actually goes to the members of the Community Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership of Morgan Hill/San Martin (CSAPP) that have worked on this for a year).
That night, the Morgan Hill city council took a significant step in curbing underage drinking by unanimously passing a social host ordinance. They join the City of Gilroy in this action. More and more jurisdictions across the state and nation are adopting such ordinances because the lack of cohesion of existing local and state laws does little to stem the increase in underage drinking. Our local police acknowledged this was needed in our town; Chief Cumming was the key leader in getting this through.
The studies are clear: young brains are impacted by early alcohol use; those who start using in their teens are more likely to become addicted. In addition, binge drinking is a problem among young people. The controversy over the rape case at the party of the De Anza baseball players is just one indicator of the problems that stem from binge drinking. Other ramifications are drunk driving, unsafe sex, theft and vandalism and other risky behaviors that put our entire community at risk.
Our city council set high fines for repeat offenses, sending a message to the community that underage drinking will not be tolerated; neither will adults who fail to heed their responsibilities and do not attend to the matter of underage drinking in their homes.
The risks are too high. The insistent arguments “if kids are going to drink, they’re going to find a way” or “it’s not my responsibility if I’m not home” don’t carry any weight. This is a problem that spans economic status, crosses ethnicities, and group affiliations. It happens everywhere and no one’s kids are immune to the temptations of having a drink if it’s allowed in the house. The intent of this comprehensive plan of consequences is to prevent adults from letting kids drink while under their watch or responsibility.
In addition to resident homeowners, the ordinance specifies that responsible parties can be owners or managers of motels/hotels and landlords in the cases of parties that take place in apartment buildings or motels and hotels. In most cases, the responsible party will be the adult host: the renter or tenant. However, in some cases, Chief Cumming reported, establishments rent rooms to adults who let teens take over the room. (Recall the situation with Live Oak’s prom a few years ago in Monterey?).
In some Morgan Hill establishments, unruly parties with underage drinkers commence, and sometimes, the people calling the police aren’t the management, but guests in other rooms bothered by the disruption. This ordinance provides incentive for hotel/motel management and owners and apartment landlords with repeat problems to partner with police to help quell the problems that come with teens partying unsupervised in these venues.
Joey Edgar, a Sobrato High School junior who has worked with CSAPP as a Youth Advocate, thanked the council for “stopping the madness.”
“I’ve seen too many of my friends become victims of alcohol at parties and it’s nice to know someone is finally doing something about it.”
Will this ordinance eliminate underage drinking in Morgan Hill? No, not by itself. But because studies show that the majority of underage drinkers access alcohol at homes and house parties, it’s a prominent tool in reducing access and availability of alcohol to teens.
What will eliminate underage drinking? Councilmembers Carr and Sellers hit on the answers in their responding comments. By taking this action, they said, “…we need to send the message that alcohol is no longer a rite of passage….we’re changing the environment, the culture and attitudes in Morgan Hill about underage drinking.”
Every adult, parent or not, has a duty to ensure the health and wellbeing of our young people. This includes demonstrating through attitudes and actions that they should prevent young developing brains from consuming alcohol before they are legally – and physically – able to do so. When everyone works together toward that end – policymakers, alcohol-selling establishments, families, schools and community members, we can eliminate underage drinking and a lot of the pain and suffering the community endures because of it.
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column is published every Friday. Reach her at dc******@*****er.net.
