Crackdown on college drinking completely ineffective

That question can be difficult for AASU students to answer when they’re stuck in southside Savannah. For many stuck between the ages of 18 and 21, there’s nowhere to go except the movies. Sure, there are plenty of bars on that side of town, but anybody trapped in that terrible age bracket knows that bars are off-limits to those under 21. Even the Historic District is lacking in its under-21 entertainment. Apart from the Sentient Bean, it’s difficult to name a gathering place in that area that’s available after 10 p.m. to the forgotten generation.

It’s a shame. Savannah can be a great city for a young person to hang out given the diverse groups inhabiting the city. There are few places in America that boast a military base, an art school and a historically African-American university, and that’s before the Pirates enter the equation. Yet, as a result of the Ordinance of Feb. 16, 2006, those under the age of 21 continue to be denied access.

Simply put, the ordinance banned the 21-and-under crowd from going to bars and clubs. Technically, they were prohibited from “Alcohol Beverage Drinking Places,” defined as “[b]ars, lounges, taverns, nightclubs, and businesses who use similar descriptions in their trade names, who emphasize alcoholic beverages in their advertising, and feature bands, disc jockeys, comedians, dancers, or other forms of entertainment as a focus of their business advertising and activity.”

Since passing the ordinance, the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department (SCMPD) claims to have reduced underage drinking in Savannah. A recent Savannah Morning News article stated that SCMPD issued 96 citations for underage drinking in 2006, the year the ordinance went into effect. That number dropped to 48 in 2007, and fell even further, to three, in 2008.

The numbers would suggest that the ordinance has led to a reduction in underage drinking across the board. In reality, all they say is that SCMPD didn’t give out very many tickets in 2008. Through July 1 of this year, they’d given out 31 underage drinking citations, putting them on pace to hand out 62 such citations by year’s end, suggesting that the real problem—binge drinking on college campuses—is far from solved. Studies published in a 2007 USA Today article show that 40 percent of students binge drink at least once every two weeks, a pattern dating back to 1993.

Savannah’s underage drinking ordinance has done nothing to address this problem. In fact, it may have exacerbated the issue.
College students are notoriously drawn to shiny things. Loud music, strobe lights, sweating bodies—to many college students, this is the ideal night. Those who would pass on the loud club atmosphere might prefer pool tables and cigars. After all, 18-21-year-olds are more than welcome to smoke cigars.

The establishments where people do these things make the majority of their money off alcohol. It’s simply part of their business model. Alcoholic drinks are expensive, and alcohol drinkers are willing to pay high prices for these beverages. In actuality, the typical broke college student can only afford a few drinks at the bar, where even the least expensive beers are typically $2 apiece.

Since they are no longer welcome in bars, college students desperate for a little bit of nightlife have begun crowding houses across Savannah. While these parties are not as large as those thrown at larger universities, they typically offer $5 all-you-can-drink specials, with that $5 providing access to not only a keg, but large vats of deceptively sweet “jungle juice.” It tastes like Kool-Aid, but three cups of the stuff can put most people to bed. When SCMPD does show up to bust these parties, they typically send all the underage drinkers scattering, choosing instead to focus on the owners of the house and sending several intoxicated, inexperienced drivers onto our streets.

Other students have taken to drinking in the comfort of their own homes. For the cost of five cheap beers at the bar—$10 on a normal night, $5 on a good night—students can purchase nearly double that amount from a liquor store. The city’s crackdown on drinking in bars and other downtown establishments has taken some of the heat off these liquor stores, who provide students with variety of ways to get tanked.

Maybe, though, this was the goal of SCMPD and the City of Savannah all along. By encouraging young college students to stay away from bars and clubs downtown, they’ve made the downtown scene much more attractive for those over the age of 21. College students tend to spend less and tip less, and it’s not worth risking a liquor license to cater to this crowd.

So, yes, the City of Savannah has cracked down on underage drinking at bars in downtown Savannah on the weekends. In terms of solving the problem of underage drinking, however, they haven’t done a thing.