Underage Drinking Is Focus of LMAS Program
By Karen Gould

Above: A Michigan drivers license in a horizontal format indicates a resident is 21 or older. Those younger than 21 are issued a vertical drivers license (at right). A line on the license indicating the person is younger than 21 appears in red. (Photographs courtesy of Michigan Secretary of State office)

If a group of people are sitting at a table in a restaurant or bar and one person walks over to the bar to buy a pitcher of beer, asks Melanie MacDowell, what should the server do to be sure no underage customers in the group are drinking?

This is just one scenario presented as part of a server education program offered to area businesses by Mrs. MacDowell, a certified prevention specialist with Luce Mackinac Alger Schoolcraft (LMAS) Health Department.

The server class is free to area businesses.

As part of alcohol education within the county, the program is offered to business owners and severs, and teaches about checking Identification, offers examples of how to handle various situations that arise, and reminds those providing alcohol of legal consequences if laws are violated.

In the case of the pitcher of beer, she said, the server should card everyone at the table. The bottom line is, the server is responsible. If they question any identification, even if it is legal, it is their discretion and the discretion of the establishment's owner as to who they serve.

"If something happens," she said, "the employee that serves it will be fined and the bar will be fined."

The server providing alcohol to a minor is fined from $500 to $1,000 and the bar is fined $1,000 to $1,500. The bar also receives one point against its liquor license. After three points, the bar will lose its license to sell liquor.

"If you, for a minute, aren't sure about it," she advises servers and owners about serving someone, "then don't do it."

She offers the example of a local bar. A father and son stopped in after a basketball game. The father purchased beer to go and handed it to the son as they were about to leave. The server told the father that the underage son could not carry the beer, although the server did not stop the sale.

This is an instance, said Mrs. MacDowell, where the man could have been buying alcohol for a minor. With that in mind, she asked the server what he now thought of the situation. As she retells the story, the server said, "I probably shouldn't have sold it to him."

Being busy, she tells servers and owners, is not an excuse for making a mistake and selling alcohol to a minor. Granted, she said, sometimes the establishment is going to lose the sale.

She offers no set recommendation of an age when patrons should no longer be carded by servers.

"How do you know?" she asks of a questionable sale. "You don't know.

"If you don't know," she said, "card."

Some servers will sell a drink based on a customer telling them another server at the bar sells to them. Selling liquor under those circumstances, she said, would be a bad decision.

Selling alcohol is all about taking time and paying attention.

Business owners appreciate the program, she said. Even though the owners tell staff of their responsibilities, too, the LMAS program adds authority and acts as a third party advising the servers of their legal responsibilities and letting them know it is all right to say "no" to a customer, if they are unsure.

The beverage server training, she said, includes educating the staff on what to look for on a drivers license.

A minor's license is printed in a vertical format, while licenses issued for those over 21 years of age are in a horizontal format. When a minor turns 21, he or she can apply to the Secretary of State at a local office for a new license. Until it arrives, temporary paperwork is attached to the license. Even with the paperwork, she said, it's not legal to sell to them. The 21- year-old should not be served until able to present a legal-age drivers license.

Fake identification, she said, also is an issue in a tourist town like St. Ignace.

"You're not just going to get Michigan drivers licenses," she said, and she promotes the use of a black light to check licenses. The light is effective for detecting any changes made to the document; under the light, any modifications will appear white.

In April, town hall meetings about alcohol control were held across the country, including St. Ignace, to educate business owners and servers.

LMAS and the state's liquor control commission perform compliance checks randomly throughout the year on businesses to see if they are conforming to state age laws for tobacco and alcohol sales. Youth act as potential buyers during the compliance checks.

The decoy buyer, who is usually 18 or 19 years old, is not chosen because he or she looks older, said State Police Trooper Fred Strich.

"It's not a trick," he said. "The biggest thing is for the business owners to educate their employees. It has been my experience the employee will ask for ID, look at it, and sell anyway."

The new vertical license, he said, indicates if the driver is under 18 and not legally able to purchase tobacco, and under 21 and not legally able to purchase alcohol.

"It's pretty simple," he said. "They've got to pay attention. They've got to take their time. The business owners understand they don't have to serve anybody they don't want to, or they're unsure of."

The employee who makes the sale, he surmises, often either is using the wrong date or not comprehending that a minor is trying to make a purchase.

Last year, LMAS did 11 compliance checks and of those, five businesses sold to minors.

"It was very easy for my decoy to walk in, order a beer, and sit down," Mrs. MacDowell said.

The checks are done, said Mrs. MacDowell, to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors, rather than, as many people may believe, to catch a business making an improper sale.

"It's about the youth in the community," she said, "and keeping them safe."