(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter or RC Chapter 4301, no person shall sell beer or intoxicating liquor to an underage person, or buy beer or intoxicating liquor for, or furnish it to, an underage person, unless given by a physician in the regular line of his or her practice or given for established religious purposes, or unless the underage person is accompanied by a parent, spouse who is not an underage person, or legal guardian.
In proceedings before the Liquor Control Commission, no permit holder, his or her employee or agent charged with a violation of this division shall, for the same offense, be charged with a violation of division (A)(1) of RC 4301.22.
(b) No person who is the owner or occupant of any public or private place shall knowingly allow any underage person to remain in or on the place while possessing or consuming beer or intoxicating liquor, unless the intoxicating liquor or beer is given to the person possessing or consuming it by that person’s parent, spouse who is not an underage person, or legal guardian and the parent, spouse who is not an underage person, or legal guardian is present at the time of the person’s possession or consumption of the beer or intoxicating liquor.
An owner of a public or private place is not liable for acts or omissions in violation of this division that are committed by a lessee of that public place, unless the owner authorizes or acquiesces in the lessee’s acts or omissions.
(c) No person shall engage or use accommodations at a hotel, inn, cabin, campground or restaurant when he or she knows or has reason to know either of the following:
(1) That beer or intoxicating liquor will be consumed by an underage person on the premises of the accommodations that the person engages or uses, unless the person engaging or using the accommodations is the spouse of the underage person and who is not himself or herself an underage person, or is the parent or legal guardian of all of the underage persons, who consume beer or intoxicating liquor on the premises and that person is on the premises at all times when beer or intoxicating liquor is being consumed by an underage person;
(2) That a drug of abuse will be consumed on the premises of the accommodations by any person, except a person who obtained the drug of abuse pursuant to a prescription issued by a practitioner and has the drug of abuse in the original container in which it was dispensed to the person.
(d) (1) No person is required to permit the engagement of accommodations at any hotel, inn, cabin or campground by an underage person or for an underage person, if the person engaging the accommodations knows or has reason to know that the underage person is intoxicated, or that the underage person possesses any beer or intoxicating liquor and is not accompanied by a parent, spouse who is not an underage person, or legal guardian who is or will be present at all times when the beer or intoxicating liquor is being consumed by the underage person.
(2) No underage person shall knowingly engage or attempt to engage accommodations at any hotel, inn, cabin or campground by presenting identification that falsely indicates that he or she is twenty-one (21) years of age or older for the purpose of violating this section.
(e) No underage person shall knowingly possess or consume any beer or intoxicating liquor, in any public or private place, unless the underage person is accompanied by a parent, spouse who is not an underage person, or legal guardian, or unless the beer or intoxicating liquor is given by a physician in the regular line of his or her practice or given for established religious purposes.
(f) No parent, spouse who is not an underage person, or legal guardian of a minor shall knowingly permit the minor to violate this section or divisions (a) to (d) of Section 617.021.
(g) The operator of any hotel, inn, cabin or campground shall make the provisions of this section available in writing to any person engaging or using accommodations at the hotel, inn, cabin or campground.
(h) As used in this section:
(1) “Drug of abuse” has the same meaning as in RC 3719.011.
(2) “Hotel” has the same meaning as in RC 3731.01.
(3) “Minor” means a person under the age of eighteen (18) years.
(4) “Practitioner” and “prescription” have the same meanings as in RC 3719.01.
(5) “Underage person” means a person under the age of twenty-one (21) years.
(RC 4301.69)
(i) Whoever violates division (b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree. Whoever violates division (a) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, shall be fined not less than five hundred ($500.00) and not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), and, in addition to the fine, may be imprisoned for a definite term of not more than six (6) months.
(RC 4301.99)
(j) The provisions of this section relating to the attempted purchase, purchase, sale, possession or consumption of beer apply only to persons who on July 31, 1987, are less than nineteen (19) years of age.
(Ord. No. 90-96. Passed 3-18-96, eff. 3-26-96)