Bill would let Colorado parents buy alcohol for children
Submitted by Guest Blogger on January 8, 2013 – 8:58 am18 Comments
Parents could be able buy alcohol for their children at Colorado bars and restaurants if they were 18 and older but not 21 yet, under a proposal by a Republican lawmaker.
Sen. Greg Brophy is introducing the bill for the legislative session that begins Wednesday. He says he thought of the proposal because he and his wife recently took their daughter to dinner to celebrate her 20th birthday, and she couldn’t have a drink with them.
Brophy says he also wants parents of returning servicemen to be able to buy their children drinks at bars or restaurants.
He says the bill would allow parents to buy their adult children drinks in any place that allows on-premise alcohol consumption. Wisconsin has a similar law.
Associated Press
This is a step in the right direction. Parents can teach about proper consumption remove the “street” learning. The state also stops being in everyone’s pocket and returns parenting to parents.
Are you freaking KIDDING me?
This is this joker’s first bill up, that his precious daughter couldn’t drink with them? What a complete jerk.
Go so far out of your way to not allow marijuana to be used by those who are underage and then allow something like this to happen? Hickenlooper was afraid the Colorado would be known as the “pot state” when all the time we have more microbreweries that anywhere and the highest rate of alcoholism in the country. Yeah, being known as the “drunkest” state is a moniker well deserved.
These are the kinds of Bills introduced in the legislature that waste time and cause the legislature to stay in session way beyond what is necessary. Besides, Senator, you need someone sober to drive the family home from the restaurant because with today’s hyper DUI sensitive police any consumption of alcohol and driving may result in a bright flashlight beam in the eyes.
Imagine not getting to drink with your parents on your 20th birthday. Oh…..the travesty. I didn’t toast with my parents on my 20th and I’m scarred for life.
This is just another nutty idea……that will encourage underage drinking…..because parents feel uncomfortable drinking unless their 18-year-old kid can drink at a restaurant with them??????
Here’s a thought: Let the NON-DRINKING 18-20 year old…..be the Designinated Driver….instead of just another “had been drinking” person in the car.
Fine with me, folks. A parent is the right person to teach, through example, the proper and appropriate use of alcohol. Now, if only more parents would teach proper and appropriate behaviors in other areas of so many youngsters’ lives, our society might have more of a hope and a prayer.
I believe this is an issue best decided by the parents, but I cannot believe this is the most pressing issue before our state legislature…
Couldn’t be in more agreement with you. Parents and teenagers can work out most things without the state. The legislature has much more pressing issues for this age group: education, health care, and jobs.
Quite right! This is already happening behind closed doors. Wouldn’t it be better to let 18 year old experience alcohol under the guidance of their parents rather than throw them to the wolves when they are 21? Kind of like a permit, but with alcohol. Seems responsible to me and puts the parent back in the drivers seat.
If you can die for your country, you should be able to have a beer. And not just because mommy or daddy bought it for you at Old C’s, but because 18 years olds are adults, 19 year olds are adults and 20 years olds are adults. 21 is such an arbitrary number.
I always thought Brophy was kind of a nut and this just reconfirms my belief. I really don’t have a problem with the bill per se. What I object to is the ability on legislators’ parts to introduce such silly trivia when there is important business to be conducted under the gold dome. This is additional evidence that the number of bills each legislator is allowed to introduce should be reduced from five. I’d suggest a maximum of two.
Of course, I could be wrong. I’d be willing to change my mind if someone could identify the significant problem that is crying out for a solution that this bill would rectify.
I have mixed feelings about this bill.
If you are old enough to die for your country and make a life or death call in combat then you are old enough to have a drink. I also do not like the state telling me how to parent.
The flip side of this is how does a police officer tell if the child was drinking with their parents before they got into trouble aftewards.
The driving concerns? The fact that we are sending another mixed message to kids just like we are with the new legal pot measure.
I think we honestly have bigger issues to deal with rather than something as silly as this one.
I can get buzzed off a glass of wine. The free samples at the end of a brewery tour are enough to send me into stupor and drunk-dialing. Everyone is different.
No.
I would be fine with it, I drank alcohol at parties when I was 18-20 on rare occasion. I don’t drink at this point in my life, even socially. I don’t see how a glass of wine would be harmful when it has health benefits and half (probably more than half) of them are drinking at parties illegally anyway.
With every generation ideas, values and laws change. Right now my son is to young to really think about how this affects us and what we would do as parents. By the time he is 18 it’s very possible that could be the legal drinking age. With that said currently the legal drinking age is 21 and it should still be illegal to purchase for underage individuals.
My first reaction is no. I suppose this makes the occasional “special event” class of wine that some parents give their under-21 kids legal, but how many more abuses does this open up? And how quickly does this turn into even younger teens drinking at home as well?