Another reason to avoid Virginia
A middle-aged couple in Virginia have been sentenced to over 2 years in prison for serving alcohol at their son’s 16th birthday party. That’s down from 8 years on appeal, which is small comfort given the ludicrous sentence for something that should never be a target for prosecution in the first place. (Hat tip: Overlawyered.) Incredibly, the appeal focused on the question on the issue of the arresting policeman not having a warrant to search the home where the party was held, and not that arresting these people is totally counterproductive (not to mention totally fucking stupid). As others have pointed out, isn’t it better that these kids were drinking in a safe environment where parents were supervising and making sure none would drive home drunk, rather than in some parking lot somewhere?
And who was it that thought prohibition was a good idea anyway? When will legislators finally realise that banning things that aren’t directly harmful and that people want or need to do — drink booze, smoke pot, have sex, have an abortion — doesn’t make that activity go away. All these laws serve is to make legislators feel morally superior.
