Alcohol and the 'Street'

In two days the Princeton Borough Council will again vote on a proposed alcohol ordinance that would permit police to enter eating clubs to stop underage drinking. With or without this new ordinance, the law already provides avenues for authorities to crack down on underage drinking — witness the summonses served to officers at Colonial and Quad last week as a result of an undercover operation in November.

A crackdown on underage drinking at the clubs, whether aided by current laws or new ones, would involve hidden costs that no council member, administrator or policeman could possibly impose in good conscience.

Whenever the clubs are prevented from serving undergraduates of all ages, younger students shift to higher-risk drinking of hard alcohol at small, private parties in individual dorm rooms. This isn't conjecture, but reality: it gets repeated every year during winter formals and pre-frosh hosting, when the clubs go dry to nonmembers. With the option of the 'Street' removed, students shift from excessive consumption of beer to excessive consumption of liquor, a change that markedly increases the chance of serious health consequences.

If new policies, however well-intentioned, effectively exacerbate the health risks of Princeton's drinking culture, a zeal for stringent enforcement may lead to the kind of worst-case scenario Princeton has so fortunately avoided in recent years — fatal alcohol poisoning.

Underage drinking is illegal, and no one ought to break the law. But everyone involved in the alcohol debate bears a responsibility for considering the real consequences of each possible course of action. Any change that drives student drinking underground, swaps beer for hard liquor, or in any way stigmatizes medical treatment would certainly do more harm than good.