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Bill aimed at tighter controls on underage drinking gets local legislators' support

By Howard B. Owens

Underage drinkers who get caught and then ignore the ticket may soon find themselves losing their drivers' licenses.

A bill to put some teeth in underage drinking provisions got the support of the Public Service Committee of the Genesee County Legislature on Monday.

One of the biggest backers of the bill is Darien Town Justice Gary Graber, legislators noted. Graber sees hundreds of underage citations written every summer at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, but apparently few of the under-21 crowd cited ever make their scheduled court dates.

And there isn't much Graber, and other justices, can do about it, unless Assembly Bill A5722 passes.

The bill would also make it possible to suspend the driver's license of anybody given a citation for marijuana possession who doesn't appear in court.

On Monday, legislators passed a resolution urging Assembly and Senate approval of the bill.

Irene Will

Well no WONDER there have been so many arrests - there have been no CONSEQUENSES - THIS is a GREAT idea - it's about TIME. These underage drinkers would more-than-likely end up drinking and DRIVING too. I hope this PASSES.

Sep 20, 2011, 12:24pm Permalink
Dave Olsen

Or we could just take the drinking age back to 18 and end the prohibition on Marijuana. Yeah, I know about the federal highway funds being tied to the drinking age, before someone trots that out. I wish a state attorney general would take that one to the Supreme Court.

Sep 20, 2011, 12:49pm Permalink
Janice Stenman

People who want to drink will drink......people who want to smoke pot will smoke pot. I'm in favor of dropping the drinking age back down to 18 and legalizing pot.

Sep 20, 2011, 6:28pm Permalink
Marie Smith

well for starters, and 18 year old isn't an adult, and the 18 year old brain isn't fully developed either. So encouraging them to drink at a younger age increases the risk of permanent damage to their brain. And as for the state highway funds, yes that is part of it but we also decreased the number of alcohol related vehicle deaths when they increased the drinking age. I think that we should be protecting our youth not putting them in more harms way. We as the adults are the ones that are supposed to make this world a safer place, so why start taking steps backwords?

Sep 20, 2011, 9:30pm Permalink
Mark Potwora

This is more for the Darien Town Justice to collect their money..It all about money..Someone who is 18,19, 20 Should be able to drink at a concert..You can get married have kids ,or go to war at that age..So you should be able to have alcohol at that age..

Sep 20, 2011, 9:41pm Permalink
Mark Janofsky

"18 year old isn't an adult, and the 18 year old brain isn't fully developed either"

Is that why so many 18 year old's voted for Obama?

Seriously though, we lock them up when they commit a crime, we send them to war, allow them to vote, allow them to drive, they hold jobs, have and support families. Yet they're not allowed to drink. Ridiculous!

Sep 20, 2011, 10:19pm Permalink
Sharilyn Fotiathis

Underaged drinking in LeRoy is a HUGE problem & it's not just weekends it's 7 days a week. What floors me are the 15-17 years olds that post pictures of themselves drinking on Facebook..... where are the parents??? A simple right click and "save picture as" and anyone now has a copy of these photos. Kinda sad an 18-19 year old can get shipped to Iraq but can't have a beer with his friends before he leaves???!!!

Sep 21, 2011, 12:43am Permalink

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