Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, holds up a stack of fake identification cards picked up by the state on just one night in one store on South Padre Island during spring break. While Intoxicated Laws know there's a problem with underage drinking. Now they're recommending stiff punishment to fight it, including driver's license suspension for those under the legal drinking age of 21 found driving with any amount of alcohol in their system.
Juvenile drinking and driving is absolutely unacceptable behavior, period.
The Senate panel unanimously approved recommendations Monday to be forwarded to the 1997 session of the Legislature for consideration. Voting for it were Lucio, Shapiro, Turner, West and Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. Besides the financial incentive to cut down on underage drinking, there's the cost in lives. West said he wants all the recommendations to be included in one bill to be filed for the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January. He also said he would like to see all the committee members sign on as co-authors.