Concerns grow over underage drinking related to Virginia's cocktails to-go law

Underaged drinkers exploit online delivery apps to get alcohol

FOX 5's Perris Jones reports on the growing concerns about underaged drinkers in Virginia taking advantage of the state's cocktails to-go law.

VIRGINIA - The cocktails to-go law in Virginia was meant to help businesses struggling during the pandemic, but now there’s concern that underage drinkers could take advantage it.

The concerns stem from whether delivery drivers are checking to see if customers who order alcoholic beverages are over 21. A study done by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Authority highlighted how often this can happen.

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Virginia ABC agents conducted the study by doing compliance checks of third-party delivery services throughout the state last fall. The checks consisted of agents ordering alcoholic beverages for underaged buyers, and seeing whether drivers would check the customer's age.

The results showed out of 52 completed orders, 32 of them were made to an underage buyer. Of those 32 orders, 23 involved situations where a customer's I.D. was not checked. For the other nine sales, officials said an I.D. was requested, but that didn't stop drivers from giving the items to the underaged customers.

FOX 5 spoke to Brandy Nannini, who is the Senior Vice President of a nonprofit called Responsibility.org.

Nannini tells FOX 5 the data is concerning.

"There seems to be a disconnect at least in this instance between the companies and the rules I know they’re very dedicated to and the delivery people. So maybe a lot more training is in order," Nannini said. "It’s critical that we all as a community get it right. It’s important that these underage drinkers don’t get cocktails to go."

Nannini also tells FOX 5 that, "preventing underage drinking through cocktails to go or delivery of alcohol is it’s something that has to be a comprehensive approach. It needs to involve training, it needs to involve always a visual inspection of the I.D. and an age verification and they also need to make sure the license is authentic."

FOX 5 reached out several third party delivery services for comment on the study.

Uber Eats referred FOX 5 to their guidelines for drivers delivering alcohol, which said it requires drivers to check a customer's sobriety, request I.D., check identity, and confirm age by scanning the I.D. using the driver's app.

FOX 5 also heard from Instacart, which said it takes alcohol compliance seriously and have several verification steps before delivery to customers.

After Thursday’s conference the court plans to release a list of cases they will hear or not, next Monday at 9:30AM.

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Door dash sent FOX 5 a statement reading in part

"We are constantly working to ensure all alcohol ordered on our platform is delivered responsibly. This includes rolling out two-step I.D. verification, both for before a customer places an order and once before the dasher hands off the delivery."