The concept of drinking and partying among college students is not a new one.
Movies like “Super Bad” and “American Pie” advertise the fun side of underage partying and drinking.
Something not mentioned in those movies is that about 5,000 underage people in the U.S. die annually to alcohol.
Monroe is home to numerous bars, dance clubs and drive-thru daiquiri establishments. Most bars only require you be 18-years-old to enter.
Multiple local bar tenders have said that 10 is the average number of underage drinkers that get caught each weekend, depending on the night.
Hands with stamps, hands without stamps, wristbands that say “21” or ones that don’t. Most people don’t let a little thing like the law stop them.
There are many tricks that students have learned from movies and knowledge passed on from friends.
There’s fake IDs, washing stamps off in the bathroom, lick and stick stamps, finding or borrowing a wristband, flirting with the bar tender or getting other people who are 21 and older to buy it, to name a few.
“I had an underage person with a stolen/found wristband approach the bar and order a drink. Unfortunately he had the wristband on the wrong hand,” said Joel Barfield, senior construction management major and previous bartender at Rendezvous in Monroe.
According to Barfield, the bar changes wristbands and stamps every weekend.
Another common tactic being used is lick and stick stamps. This is where a person of age goes inside, gets stamped, goes back outside, licks their stamp and presses it on to another person’s hand.
Most guys say that girls have it easier when trying to get alcohol underage, but it’s possible for guys to sneak under the radar too.
“Girls go up to the bar and if the bartender is a guy and you can pull off the right moves, you won’t get carded. Seen it many of times,” said Aaron Head, a junior pre-pharmacy major.
“But many times, for men, as long as you don’t look 14 you can get a drink. I’ve personally never been carded in my life from the simple Chili’s to Rendezvous or even [Sixth Street Bar].”
Though legally the age to drink is 21, the law rarely stops people.
“I never had to do anything crazy. Alcohol is easily accessible. It’s not crack. I’ve never had to go to the ghetto or perform a striptease for a cocktail,” said Morgan Patrick, 24-year-old ULM student, on getting alcohol as a minor.
