The Suffolk County Legislature has ramped up penalties under the county’s social host law — a law adopted nearly a decade ago that made it a crime for adults to serve alcohol to minors or “knowingly allow” minors to consume alcohol at their homes.
Legislators on Tuesday passed a bill that makes it a misdemeanor to violate the social host law. Under the current provision’s of the law, adopted in 2007, it’s a criminal violation.
The law is designed to prevent homeowners from hosting drinking parties for their underage children.
Passed just before high school graduation weekend, the bill is a reminder to adults that Suffolk County’s social host law makes them criminally liable for serving alcohol at graduation house parties.
The bill’s sponsors, legislators Tom Cilmi (R-East Islip) and Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood), said in a press release the legislation sends “a clear and forceful message that it is illegal for an adult to serve alcohol to someone else’s underage child and that we will prosecute those caught doing so.”
They said they hope it will help change “a growing permissive attitude toward underage drinking” which is often a gateway to the use of other drugs such as marijuana and opioids.
Though it was passed “just in time for high school prom and graduation season,” as its sponsors noted in the release, the bill won’t become law until after it’s signed by the county executive and filed with the N.Y. Secretary of State. That won’t be before early August, according to a spokesperson for Cilmi.
“The county executive has to hold a public hearing before he can sign it,” said Cilmi’s legislative aide, Maria Barbara. She said the hearing was set for July 5.
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