SENATE COMMITTEE AND TEENAGE LOBBYISTS OPPOSE DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

Open-container bill advances; youths speak out

INDIANAPOLIS -- A state Senate committee endorsed a bill Tuesday that would
strengthen Indiana's open-container law and negate millions of dollars in
federal penalties.

Meanwhile, about 300 teenagers from across Indiana roamed the Statehouse and
urged legislators to crack down more on drugs, alcohol and drunken driving.

Ian Nixon, a 17-year-old senior at Southmont High School near
Crawfordsville, Ind., said the students were being heard, even among the
older, professional lobbyists.

"I think it's really refreshing for (lawmakers) to see this many youth that
really do care about issues going on in their communities," Nixon said.
"They talk to adults every day, but not every day do they see 300 kids in
the Rotunda."

In a room about 50 feet away, the Senate Transportation and Homeland
Security Committee voted 7-1 to approve a bill that would bring Indiana's
open-container law into compliance with federal guidelines. The bill now
moves to the Senate for consideration.

Under the state law enacted in 1994, a person drinking in a vehicle alone
can be charged with an infraction and fined up to $1,000. Stiffer penalties
exist for drivers who are impaired or intoxicated.

But if there are others in the car with open containers of alcohol, the
drivers face open-container fines only if they have a blood-alcohol content
of .04 percent or higher.

Sen. Thomas Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, said the law was practically unenforceable
because police officers would rarely take steps needed to prove a driver's
blood-alcohol content just to issue an open-container ticket.

The bill would remove the blood-alcohol provision and subject drivers to
fines up to $1,000 if there are any open containers of alcohol in the
passenger sections of vehicles.

Because current state law does not match federal guidelines, Indiana has
been forced to transfer $27 million in federal highway money over the past
three years to alcohol-enforcement activities or to specific, hazard
elimination activities.

Through the bureaucratic process of the transfers, the state lost $1.6
million in federal highway money over the past two federal fiscal years and
could lose as much as $3.5 million this year, according to the Legislative
Services Agency.

Republican Sen. Robert Meeks of LaGrange, Ind., a former state trooper,
voted for the bill but likened the federal penalties to blackmailing the
state.

"Sometimes I think we ought to say what is good for Indiana without the
federal government standing on top of us with a hammer," Meeks said. "It's
our money."

The teenagers visited the Statehouse as part of an annual youth summit
sponsored by the Youth Division of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
Their motto was "26 years of the population, 100 percent of the future."

They had their own recommendations for new laws, including tax increases on
alcohol, drug testing for students and staff in schools, and requiring
ignition interlock devices to be installed in the cars of people with
multiple drunken-driving convictions.