By ALEX GIMARC
The Alaska Legislature, in a faux embrace of small government voted Senate Bill 15, legislation to allow 18-year-olds to sell alcohol. The bill was passed out of both houses with veto-proof majorities. It is headed to the governor’s desk for action.
From the outside, it would appear that the majority is telling those that installed them to “Here, hold my beer.” A cynic might wonder how bad the service at Juneau bars has been this session. A happy thought would be that they have finally solved the substance abuse problem in Bush Alaska, and introducing youngsters to alcohol at a younger age is no longer a problem.
Of course, such thinking would completely ignore the disaster of changing the legal age for purchasing alcohol to 18 following passage of the 26thAmendment (right to vote at 18) in 1971. The fallout among the newly emancipated young was sufficiently awful that it only took states a couple years to return the legal age to 21. The legal whiplash of those of who rode that wave was awesome.
When you get a lemming stampede like this out of the Legislature, actual issues and fallout is often never considered.
For example, we here in Anchorage are treated to universal ID checks regardless of age when we purchase alcohol. If it is safe enough for 18-year-olds to sell, why are we still carding? This was recently extended to bars and restaurants, where patrons are universally carded.
According to this legislature, alcohol remains sufficiently dangerous that it isn’t legal to purchase until you are 21, but safe enough for 18-year-olds to sell. One or the other could be true, but not both.
Extend this logic a bit to other substances illegal to purchase between ages 18 – 21 – tobacco, vaping and pot.
Are these substances more or less dangerous than alcohol? Most of us would think less, though society via its laws treat them as the functional equivalent of heroin, fentanyl, or worse. If 18-year-olds can sell alcohol, why then can they not sell tobacco, vaping products or pot?
Why indeed.
Finally, we have the ongoing substance abuse destruction of people in the Bush. Allowing 18-year-olds to sell alcohol out there will only introduce more of them to alcohol at an earlier age. Does anyone in the legislature think this is a positive lifestyle choice?
Maybe it is time to have another public discussion over the Age of Majority, something pointedly ignored by the legislature in their rush to speed up bar service in Juneau. We as a nation tried this half a century ago. It didn’t go all that well, and that was a society with more intact families and more people going to church on a regular basis. Anyone out there think it will work better this time around?
If this is an example of thoughtful legislation out of this legislature, I shudder to think what they are about to do to public employee pensions, the BSA and the PFD.
While I don’t expect the governor to veto this, I think he should, although it might be overridden.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
So, I am sitting here in a bar at 60 years old being given alcohol by a kid that was 17 years old yesterday. The child then asks to see my ID before he or she can serve me. Only in a world where moral superiors can this occur. Hubris begins with entitlement, and without this insulation, these poor self-serving lunatics would starve to death in a fair world. Alas, it is not fair as we are ruled by lunatics under a false impression bred by a generation of entitlements. The easier life gets, the more prideful one becomes as one slides into the pit of poor mental health.
The hypocrisy of statutes with regard to the possession, selling and serving prohibited mind altering products is obvious. So now an eighteen year old can serve but not taste the wine she serving. The situation is laughable. I will, however, disagree with Mr. Gimarc about access to alcohol in the Bush. This new law will not change that dreadful situation one bit. The abuse of alcohol in the Bush is a cultural and societal problem.