Not Fine to Get a Fine

Some people don’t think that it makes sense to have a drinking age of 21 when the legal age to sign documents, get married, join the military, and be held fully responsible otherwise is 18. The truth is that it was raised to 21 to try to keep the alcohol out of the high schools and mostly out of the colleges. Do you think it has worked?

In any case, if someone wants to lobby for the drinking age to be lowered, they are free here in the United States to do so. They will meet a lot of resistance, but they will also have a lot of people on their side.

What it is not okay to do, is to bend or break the law that exists. And over in Bend, Oregon and Redmond, Oregon, a check by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission reported that 7 out of 20 of the businesses that received a surprise inspection between May 13-17, more than two thousand failed the test. And that’s not just an “oops,” either.

What’s the problem? An employee of each of these businesses did not bother to check the ID of the underaged volunteer who was working with the police department.
The volunteers carry their own personal ID and simply go into the restaurants or bars or stores and attempt to make a purchase. OLCC inspectors and other law enforcement officers supervise the volunteers at the time. This was not too good: 35% of the time they were able to do so, a statistic that is well above the 20% statewide average achieved last year.

Good customer service is important and it may be difficult for some employees to ask for ID or to refuse to serve a customer. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that teens should not be drinking and it is important for every employee of every location to be “on board” with this.

The businesses that failed were Long Board Louies, Summit Saloon and Stage, Big Island Kona Mix Plate, Sage Café, and McMenamins Old St. Fancies School: all are in Bend. The Redmond Liquor Store South and Thai O Restaurant are in Redmond. No doubt this sort of advertisement didn’t help their image any.

Worst of all, those restaurants were fined, and there’s a good likelihood that the unhappiness will be passed along to the employees at fault.