A good article in the Globe on Massachusetts’ little known and poorly understood laws against adults allowing minors to drink alcohol on their property, in addition to laws against them actually supplying alcohol.

The charges can be pretty clear cut if parents or adults actually provide alcohol to underage kids, but things get complicated if the Commonwealth can’t prove that the adults were aware of the party & drinking going on.

Penalties for violating this misdemeanor offense can be fines of up to $2000, and a year in jail if convicted.

Discussion in the article is around whether the penalties should be even more severe if the underage drinking results in someone drinking and driving and getting charged with an OUI, or worse, if the alcohol consumption leads to injury or death.

Certainly there is a wide variety of circumstances that can lead to this charge.

Most parents and adults to not condone or support their kids drinking, but there are certainly a strong minority of situations where parents do provide alcohol at home in what they would consider a “safe” environment.

Either way, this can be a relatively serious criminal charge, and in cases where there are big parties of teens, or if someone ends up getting injured or killed as a result, a story like this will make local headlines, meaning criminal charges are much more likely to be filed, regardless of whether the adults knew of the event.

The new Massachusetts law banning texting while driving goes into effect on Oct 1, 2010.  Cell phone use is still allowed for those 18 and over, but texting or reading email while driving will be subject to a traffic citation and a fine of $100-$500. [Read More...]

Governor Patrick signed the CORI reform bill into law, making it easier for those convicted of crimes long in the past to clear their records, get jobs, and make it less likely that they will be inclined to re-offend.

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