Sunday, April 02, 2006

Underage and online wine buying

With all of the new legislation going around in what seems every state, it couldn't be too long before people started bringing up the subject of underage teens buying wine online and being able to consume it. An editorial by Bill Stephens the Executive Director of the Christian Coalition of Florida brings this subject to light in the Orlando Sentinel. While I respect the Christian Coalition, I have to completely disagree with them on this point. As someone who receives at least one, sometimes two orders of wine a month, its hard to even begin to explain how difficult it is to actually get my wine. Every shipment UPS or FedEx has a big sticker that states it MUST be signed by an adult with an ID of over 21 York old. There are some months that I have almost had my shipment returned because I couldn't meet the UPS guy due to my work. And when the UPS guys do come to my apt, they card me EVERY time, heck I know the guy on a first name basis at this point, I'm 28 York old and I STILL get ID'd. Its ridiculous.
But that's not really even the point. Imagine that you are 18 years old again, and you want to get some alcohol....what do you do? Do you go online, order some alcohol with your credit card or debit card that your parents could see, then wait 5-7 days until the shipment comes in, then hope that your home and your parents aren't when the UPS guy comes, then hope that against all regulations and federal requirement's the Delivery man doesn't card you....or do you go down to the local ice house and attempt to pick up some beer?
I think its a pretty easy answer and I think the last worry that anyone should have, and the lowest priority that the Christian coalition should have is underage drinkers ordering wine on online.

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