Imagine sitting in your room on a Thursday night having a few drinks with some friends.
Your 20 year-old friend decides to take his car to the store and on the way there, crashes.
He’s being rushed to the hospital and, aside from the physical consequences your friend may face, you are also about to deal with some serious consequences.
You had no idea that there were potential penalties for hosting a party.
Also, since you’re overage, you’re facing the charge of giving alcohol to a minor.
Maybe if you had known about these law changes, you would have thought twice.
Right now, if you host a house party and underage drinking results in a fatality, all you face is a second degree misdemeanor. However, Florida is currently dealing with a new bill to increase this penalty.
“With the new bill, if there is serious bodily injury or a fatality, then the penalty is increased to a third degree felony,” said Ellen Snelling, member of the Florida Coalition for Alcohol Policy (FCAP).
Snelling also said a third degree felony would be taken more seriously by the state attorney’s office.
However, if a person is charged for the second time in a one-year period, they may be charged with a first-degree felony.
For authorities, this sounds like an effective bill.
“Having followed some of these cases where parents have lost a child, all around it would be taken a lot more seriously,” said Snelling.
A second bill that is in the process of being passed is house bill 33.
This bill increases the penalty for the second offense of giving alcohol to a minor.
“This bill is just increasing from a second degree misdemeanor to a first degree misdemeanor , and, in certain cases, just increasing the penalty,” said Snelling.
Opinions about these two bills vary, especially between adults and teenagers.
“They would definitely think twice if they think they could get a third degree felony for having a house party.
Maybe there would be less opportunity for young people to get alcohol at open house parties,” Snelling said.
When some students were asked their opinion about these new bills, they had a different way of seeing things.
“That would suck,” said Kelly Ricker, freshman.
“I don’t like that idea at all because that would decrease the amount of house parties.”
Another student agreed.
“It should be on the person who was drinking, not where [the party] was…people need to make decisions for themselves,” said Caroline Quinn, freshman. “Their alcohol intake is their own responsibility.”
If these bills are passed, a definite change will take place, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for more change.
“I have a page of different laws that need to be improved in Florida. I think that the alcohol laws in Florida, compared to other states… Well, we have a lot to be desired,” said Snelling.
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