This is a good, common-sense bill:

BISMARCK – Minors who have been drinking shouldn’t get in trouble if they call 911 and ask for needed medical help, a state senator says.

Sen. Nick Hacker, R-Grand Forks, is the prime sponsor of a bill that would grant minors immunity from prosecution if they report another minor needs medical assistance due to alcohol consumption.

The minors would need to cooperate with medical and law enforcement officials. Senate Bill 2204 allows for up to five minors to be immune for any one occurrence.

Hacker said the bill stems from his college days when he would witness intoxicated minors taking it upon themselves to help others who got sick.

“They’re afraid to call the police or an ambulance because they’re afraid of being criminally charged,” Hacker said.

My only quibble is this: If we’re going to have a bill like this which a) recognizes that minors drink and b) puts their safety above any sort of moral or legal judgment about their consumption of alcohol, why not just go the whole hog and make drinking for minors legal?

What do we care about more, keeping these kids safe or arresting them for something most of us do anyway?  If kids were allowed to drink legally they’d be less likely to travel out to remote locations (or a hotel room or some house where the parents are gone) to get mind-numbingly boozed in an environment where there is no form of adult supervision?  Instead they’d drink at home.  Or at parties supervised by adults.  Or at bars.  Which may not sound like a great idea to some, but for me it’s preferable to seeing them out getting hammered in the woods somewhere.

Plus, if drinking were legal it’d lose it’s novelty for some of these kids.  A lot of them binge drink because it’s the rebellious thing to do.  If it were legal it wouldn’t be so rebellious.  They might still drink irresponsibly a few times while they were young, and we’d certainly have to live through a first generation of kids who enjoy the new legality of underage drinking a bit too much should we legalize it, but in the long run I think kids would develop a better relationship with alcohol early on and would be safer while they do it.