Health
Liquor sellers want new technology
Strip on licenses could help combat underage drinking
By Spencer Duncan Special to the Kansan
The new soldier in the war on underage drinking is black, paper thin and already in most students' pockets.
It is called the Julian Date-Hour Minute-Second-Number strip. This 31/2 by 1/2 inch strip lurks on the back of all Kansas drivers licenses. It is more than a decoration. It carries information carrier that Lawrence liquor stores would love to be able to access. But nobody knows when that will happen.
"I would like to be able to read those things," said John Webb, owner of Webb's Wine and Spirits, 800 W.23rd St. "It is just a matter of having the availability."
What Webb and other liquor store owners would like to have is a machine to read the Julian strip. That way store clerks would not rely on just the front of a license. The Julian strip could catch fakes, forgeries or liars.
"It's going to happen someday," said John Ross, director of the University Card Center at Fort Hays State University. "It is just a matter of time."
The strip holds a number that can access the information on the front of the license and traffic violation records. With the right technology, liquor stores would be able to read this strip and know the real age of an individual.
"If there were a question of age, I'd be able to check," Webb said. "With the technology, I could check right away."
How available is this technology? Just ask Jim Robinson, the State of Kansas operation administrator who helps oversee the use of the Julian strip.
"All you need is a computer to read it and access to the state's mainframe," Robinson said. "Once you have that, the
rest is easy."
But getting the computer and access to the mainframe could prove to be a problem.
A police officer can already run a driver's license through a small computer in the officer's car. The computer reads the Julian strip and sends the number on the strip to the mainframe. The number accesses that person's information and the information appears on the officer's car computer. Outstanding traffic violations appear along with the information on the front of the license.
"The technology is fairly simple," Robinson said."You are going to see grocery stores using a similar system to check people's information when they write a check."
But the technology is not currently in use because of cost and the need for state cooperation with retailers. Liquor stores must come up with the money for the technology and the state and stores would have to work together.
"It would be the cost of a PC and around
$160 for the scanner." Ross said "Then, as with anything, there could be other costs involved."
As for cooperation between the state and stores, that will take time and effort.
"There would be certain types of software stores would have to have," Robinson said. "There would also have to be access to the mainframe and support from the state. All of that could take time."
But it would be worth effort to some stores with high security needs. The Julian strip is almost impossible to counterfeit.
"It takes a really powerful magnet to erase it and it is almost impossible to alter." Robinson said.
That is the real attraction to the college town liquor stores plagued by underage drinkers with false identification.
"This would be a great system," Webb said. "It would help me ensure that I don't sell to minors, and then I wouldn't get in trouble for selling to the wrong people."
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Spring Fling
March 1996 The Hill