Pass Me Another Jello Shot, Mom

Radley Balko argues in today's Washington Post that parents should get drunk with their teenage children to keep them safe and protect the public. Well, that's not exactly what he argues, but I'm sure that's how some will distort it. He writes eloquently about the growing number of parents who let their teens drink at home so they can at least keep an eye on them. Even though these parents are reducing drunk driving and protecting public safety, MADD chapters all over the country are cheering as the government throws these parents in prison. In fact, MADD really has nothing to do with preventing drunk driving any more. It has morphed from a sensible harm reduction organization into a neo-prohibitionist organization. Balko covers this movement in detail in a must-read 2003 Cato Institute report, Back Door to Prohibition: The New War on Social Drinking. As some one that frequently dated girls in high school whose parents let them drink at home, I can tell you they were a hell of lot safer as a result. Otherwise they would have been constantly guilty of DWDMO (Driving While Drunk and Making Out).

If I had to nick-pick with Balko's op-ed, I would say he doesn't deal with the thorniest part of the issue. The incarcerated parents he highlights were all arrested for allowing their teens to throw parties in their house. While they confiscated the car keys of all those attended and watched over them, they still allowed other people's children to party in their home. Those kids were no doubt safer as a result (I'm sure they would have otherwise ended up partying without adult supervision); but I can see how other parents would be upset. Does that mean they should get two years in prison (as happened in one case)? Of course, not. But, it's hard to argue that the police should do nothing. Unless one believes that 16 year olds should be able to do whatever they want, regardless of what their parents say. On the otherhand, maybe angry parents can take it out on their progressive neighbors without involving the state. At the very least, I agree with Balko that "there are more pressing concerns for the...criminal justice system to address than parents who throw supervised parties for high school kids."