Hoping to send a sobering message to those who throw keg parties for underage drinkers, Rep. Elaine A. Coderre, a Pawtucket Democrat, is pushing to strengthen the law requiring kegs of beer to be labeled with information about their purchasers.
Rhode Island law already requires that all kegs of beer sold in the state are labeled with the purchaser’s name and address, along with a standard warning about laws prohibiting the delivery of alcohol to people younger than 21.
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Coderre’s bill would add a penalty of up to $500 for removing or defacing a keg’s label. It also expands the information required on keg labels to include the purchaser’s date of birth along with their license number or other identification used to document their age at the point of sale.
The bill was scheduled for a hearing before the House Corporations Committee last week.
“Under the law, if the police break up a party full of underage drinkers, they can’t hold anyone responsible if they can’t prove who provided the beer,” said Coderre. “The point of putting labels on kegs was to make it possible for police to track down the person who bought the alcohol. If the penalty for removing the label is strict, hopefully people will think twice before doing it, or before even buying beer for underage drinkers at all.”
Her bill proposes that the future labels on kegs would include an expanded warning to remind people that the state penalizes purchasers who provide alcohol to people who are under 21. The bill would also require retailers to keep a copy of each label. On the store’s copy, the clerk would be required to note whether the keg was returned with the label, without it, or not at all.
“This legislation puts some teeth in the law to make it more effective in stopping underage drinking,” Coderre said.
The bill is endorsed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Coderre said she has met with liquor distributors to make sure their needs are taken into consideration in the bill.
