The Positive Parenting Connection MySpace site includes links and ideas as to how parents can positively communicate with their children regarding not drinking while they're underage as well as tips regarding how to advise their children to make responsible choices in life.

 

 

 

Harris Interactive conducted a survey for Anheuser-Busch and found that most parents who have children, whose ages are 0-20 years old, do not believe it is right for parents to purchase alcohol (85%) or provide alcohol (82%) for teens' social functions or parties. The survey also revealed that 79% of parents feel that their teens shouldn't attend parties where alcohol is present even while parents are present

 

The Connecticut Act Concerning Underage Drinking says, “No person having possession of, or exercising dominion and control over, any dwelling unit or private property shall knowingly permit any minor to possess alcoholic liquor... or knowing that any minor possesses alcoholic liquor ... in such dwelling unit or on such private property, fail to make reasonable efforts to halt such possession.”

 

The first time someone is convicted under this law, it is considered an infraction. The second offense is punishable with a fine of up to $500 and a year in prison.

 

Read the risk of injury statute here.

 

Safer to Drink at Home?

 

Two-thirds of teens who drink get their alcohol from parents or other adults, according to the 2003 National Academy of Sciences Report. "Some parents believe that it's safer for their teens to drink at home than to drink anywhere else," according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Yet the responsibility can rest squarely on parents' shoulders should something go wrong, as it too often does. For instance, a Pennsylvania parent was sentenced to a 1 - to 4 ½-year prison term for involuntary manslaughter after allowing underage students to drink at a party the parent hosted. Three students died in a drunk-driving accident after the party.

 

Social host liability laws hold adults who serve or provide alcohol to underage people criminally liable if that minor is killed or injured - or if that minor kills or injures someone else. The laws can also extend to parents who do not take sufficient measures to prevent underage drinking in their homes, even if they are not home when the drinking occurs. Parents can be charged for medical bills and property damage or sued for emotional pain and suffering, depending on how the specific laws are interpreted in your state.

 

Connecticut just passed a bill that allows misdemeanor charges to be filed against adults who knowingly allow anyone under 21 to possess alcohol on their property.

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