Put safety first
It's 2 a.m. Your friend has had a bit too much to drink.
He's heaving. But you're under 21 and have had a couple of beers, so you don't want to go to the hospital. Your friend's health is at risk, but you do not want a Minor in Possession citation.
This situation's occurrence is perfectly consistent with current drinking laws. And that is a problem.
Michigan State University students have begun a valiant effort to create a "medical amnesty" bill, modeled after one at Ohio State University.
However, in Michigan, MSU cannot approve the bill unless underage drinking laws are modified.
Legislators should work quickly to amend drinking laws to make medical amnesty possible.
Current drinking laws are severely inadequate for handling 'non-ideal' cases: ones where things are not going how they should but where, nevertheless, something must be done.
The question is this: Given that two underage people have been drinking and that one has had too much, what should be done? Should one person help his friend?
Most people would answer 'yes.' The problem, then, is that the current legal system severely disincentives this course of action. Current laws, coupled with severe MIP penalties, make less likely that one person will take his inebriated friend to the hospital.
It becomes more tempting simply to let the friend 'sleep it off' - even though the friend could experience permanent organ or brain damage.
This is an independent question from whether these people should have been drinking in the first place. It's a question of what to do after this has occurred.
Current laws place an unreasonably high price on the right course of action.
It's doubtful that a modified law would encourage underage people to drink more often or more heavily.
This is not simply a way to avoid a MIP; it's a way to avoid bringing one upon oneself for the sake of one's friend. Though it does, so to speak, let one person 'off the hook,' the situation's urgency warrants the pardon.
The revised law would encourage people to react responsibly: to take their friend for help if it's needed. This is a health issue.
If health is one of the primary reasons minors should not be drinking, then current laws work against one of our main objectives.
We encourage CMU, as well as other universities, to press for revised laws.
This would be for the sake of students and for mitigating the negative effects of their poor decisions.
