The crusade against alcohol continued last weekend as two young men were arrested for the alleged manufacture of false identification. This event follows a series of attacks on the city’s alcohol industry and college-aged drinkers. From university attempts to ban drink specials to police raids on the Kollege Klub to continuing hostility between the ALRC and liquor licensees, it is clearly not a good time to drink or serve drinks in this town.

Surprisingly, nearly every local elected official, and many university officials, are quoted on the record saying that they are essentially in favor of lowering the drinking age, but sadly their hands are tied. Despite these sentiments, our fair city and university have not been behaving as if they are in disagreement with the policy.

In 1984, the federal government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, mandating that all 50 states raise their legal drinking age to 21. If a state did not comply with the federal “suggestion,” they would lose all federal highway funding.

Needless to say, every state complied. This is a classic example of our federal government violating the spirit of the Constitution’s 10th Amendment and paved the way for further encroachments on the rights of states to self-legislate, but that is an entirely different column.

Because the mandatory drinking age was imposed on a campus community that presumably did not care to raise the current age limitation, it has been easy for politicos and law enforcers to say, “I don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it.” Statements like these could not be further from the truth. Lowering the legal drinking age to 19 may not be a realistic possibility, but our community leaders make choices every day that contribute to the pain and suffering of social drinkers.

Nobody forces community police officers to spend an allotted amount of time hunting down house parties on Langdon Street, nobody forces the city attorneys to prosecute every noise violation that comes before them, and nobody forces our judges to come down hard on residents who are guilty of distributing beer without a license.

Nobody forces the police to arbitrarily ambush bars for false identification sweeps. Nobody forces the ALRC to impose harsh penalties on the bars that get ambushed.

Nobody forces the university to review every alcohol license application downtown. Nobody forces the university and ALRC to demand “voluntary” concessions from bar owners like surveillance cameras, early closings and prohibitive drink prices.

Most of the underage students I know buy fake IDs to gain access to the bars. It isn’t worth the price if you only want to buy from liquor stores, considering the ease with which students can find somebody they know to buy for them, so the question arises, if students can’t buy a fake and they can’t get into the bar, where are they going to go? The answer is not the library.

Making fake IDs is a crime, but it is about as victimless of a crime as I can imagine. Every fake ID sold got another 20 year old out of a dingy basement and into a supervised tavern.

Police reports also noted that the two allegedly had paraphernalia for smoking marijuana in their apartment as well, as if this tacked on charge is supposed to make us feel any more grateful that these criminals are off of our streets.

The rule of law is important, and it would be unwise to arbitrarily ignore certain laws and ordinances while enforcing others. At the same time, we can take codified steps to decriminalize social drinking amongst college-aged adults. Who is really hurt when a 19-year-old purchases a fake ID and uses it to enter a bar on a Friday night?

Our community leaders need to decide whether they are truly opposed to the mandatory 21-year drinking age. It is time for the community to stop talking and start walking.

A.J. Hughes ([email protected]) is a software developer and UW graduate.