Threatening Student Health: The University’s Dangerous Alcohol Policy and How to Fix It
In order to curtail underage drinking, the University of Pittsburgh implemented a zero-tolerance policy towards underage drinking that allows not only for charges to be brought against underage students by the city of Pittsburgh, but also that the University has the right to reprimand students — whether the incident occurred on school property or not.
Most dangerously, this policy extends through the doors of UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. Should one need medical attention after a night of excessive drinking, University of Pittsburgh Police stationed in the emergency room are prepared to cite underage students seeking medical attention and turn over their information to the Judicial Board for punishment. Interestingly enough, UPMC Mercy does not enforce the same policy.
Rather than discourage underage drinking, such a policy is excessively dangerous for students who may need medical attention after heavy alcohol consumption. In many cases, students will take the option of fending for themselves in a dorm room with other intoxicated students rather than be charged with an underage at the hospital’s door. In the wake of this past school year when 18-year-old Penn State student Joseph Dado was found dead in a stairwell with a blood-alcohol level of 0.169, it serves to reason that rather than let new and inexperienced students fend for themselves — sometimes to very bad results — the University should aim to assist and educate students in a safe and productive manner rather than punish them for seeking medical help.
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Lost and Stolen Ordinances: What Local Governments Need to Know
A prominent aspect of the debate surrounding crime and gun ownership, lost and stolen gun laws represent a particularly heated point of contention in an ideological debate between gun owners and anti-gun interest groups. After the Pennsylvania State House refused to pass a statewide lost and stolen law in 2008, lobbyists presented these ordinances to local governments throughout the state as a commonsense way to reduce crime.
Today, lost and stolen ordinances exist in approximately 45 communities – ranging in size from Philadelphia to Munhall – in Pennsylvania and their existence has prompted court cases that have yet to resolve whether or not such laws are legal. However the courts have ruled, it is clear that lost and stolen gun laws enacted by local governments in Pennsylvania are unenforceable and redundant.
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Beverage Tax Follies: Three Ways That Soda Taxes Are Bad Policy
Part of a broader legislative trend across the country, the Pittsburgh Beverage Tax is an attempt to quickly fill city coffers – the Ravenstahl Administration estimates yearly revenue at $25 million – justified by the need to combat obesity. In this way, the tax poses a question to Pittsburghers: Do you want your government to control your personal habits through punitive taxation?
The Publius Foundation’s answer to this question is no. Such a meddling approach to citizen’s lives it not only an inappropriate use of government’s power to tax, it is also bad economic policy the implementation of which threatens to harm local businesses and adversely impact the balance of the local economy during a recession.
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