Students Plan to Bypass Ohio's Keg Registration Law August 8, 2000
News Summary
Students at Ohio State University have already found a way around Ohio's new law that requires people to register with authorities if they are holding a party with five or more beer kegs, the Associated Press reported Aug. 7.The new state law requires party planners to register their parties and wait five days before buying five or more kegs of beer. In addition, they must agree to allow liquor agents and police onto their property to enforce state liquor laws.
But Shane McClintock, a senior at Ohio State University, and other college students have found an easy way to circumvent the law. McClintock said he and his housemates buy a few kegs apiece or purchase multiple cases of beer, thus avoiding the party registration requirements of the law.
Matt Malone, a Boston University graduate student who co-founded that school's chapter of Realistic Alcohol Laws for Legal Youth, confirmed that Ohio's law only forces college students to be more creative. "Eventually the futility of it is going to come out," Malone said, noting that college students are notorious for circumventing or ignoring alcohol laws and restrictions on alcohol sales. "Everyone will just find ways around it."
Erika Hemly, a junior at Ohio's Kent State University, added, "If you're 21, you should be able to buy as many kegs as you want without signing a form allowing the police to come to your house and search the place."
Susan Watiker, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, explained that party organizers have the right to ask officers to leave and obtain a search warrant. But John Wejman, a senior at Ohio State University, said very few students know they have that right.
"I don't think the average Joe student is going to know they can refuse that," he said, "and that could cause serious problems for them."
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