Stiff penalties in order for under-21 beer sales
There’s a law in place in Tennessee that’s about as straightforward as laws come: You must be at least 21 years old to purchase alcohol.
That means 16-year-olds are off limits. If you’re 18, there should be no reason to bring beer to a store counter. If you’re 20 years and 364 days old, then you are still out of luck. Sorry. Come again.
The law says you must be at least 21 to purchase alcohol.
But apparently there is some confusion about what is a simplistic law. And clerks at several local stores believe it doesn’t matter if you’re 21 or not because they have recently sold beer to a 19-year-old undercover operative.
Anyone thinking these beer sales to a teenager might be because of some strange alignment of the stars and the moon better think again. Some stores sold to the under-age customer more than once. Sometimes it was even the same clerk.
The Standard has to wonder out loud what these clerks are thinking. It had to be mentioned very early in their job training that selling alcohol to anyone under 21 is not acceptable. They had to be informed that asking for ID is a very easy way of determining a person’s age.
These clerks had to realize there was a very real possibility this 19-year-old with beer on the counter might not be 21. Not only was he 19, but he was a youthful-looking 19. He would sooner be mistaken for 16 than 21.
It’s with that in mind, the Standard has every reason to believe these clerks knew exactly what they were doing. And that should not be tolerated.
Americans have gone to great lengths to push the drinking age from 18 to 21 and for good reason. Parents all across this great nation became emotionally drained seeing their children badly injured – even killed – because they would drink too much and attempt to drive. It’s for that primary reason the legal drinking age was raised.
Despite that effort and deep-rooted concern for safety, our local convenience store clerks must feel the law doesn’t apply to them. Maybe 48 hours in jail and a $250 fine would refresh their memories about the laws of this state.
If the illegal sales continue, the alcohol licenses should be revoked indefinitely from the stores where the sales took place. That would hit store owners where it really hurts – in their wallets.
Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of all is the frequency in which underage beer sales occurred. In 30 stores where sales were attempted, they were successful at eight locations. That means over a quarter of our local stores – 26 percent – are willing to sell beer to minors.
How is this trend going to end? We know it’s not going to stop by giving law-breaking clerks a slap on the wrist, or by going easy on the store owners. It’s going to end by handing down significant penalties that really make clerks think long and hard about their actions.