By Patrick Book

Drinking age debate in Saskatchewan includes fake IDs

Nov 8, 2012 | 5:50 AM

Lowering the minimum drinking age to 18 may reduce the number of teens using fake identification to get into bars in Regina, something The Owl at the University of Regina sees tried over and over.

“We have stacks that we have claimed,” insists Alexis Losie, who has been running the campus bar for eight years.

“We discard them; we send them into the police and to SLGA. Every bar in this city is. We're not alone on this.”

The Saskatchewan Party may be looking at the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18 after a resolution was passed at its party convention. Losie says that could keep a lot of kids from breaking the law by seeking out a phony ID.

She admits that teenagers will try almost anything to get into the bar, though usually they try to pass off someone else's ID as their own. While fake IDs are nothing new, she says web sites based out of Europe, for example, are churning fakes that appear to be nearly flawless.

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She recalls seeing one that was so sophisticated the only way her bouncers could tell for sure was by doing a “drop test.”

Saskatchewan's now three year-old polycarbonate licenses make a very specific sound when dropped or tapped, sounding lighter and firmer than a normal plastic card that might be used in a forgery. Losie says that test led them to look closer at the card.

“It felt a little weird but we did the drop test and we knew there was a different coating on it. With a bit of picking we realized that they had put over a very thin cover, changing the date.”

Despite the apparent sophistication Brian Kline, SGI's manager of driver development and safety services, insists looks can only be so deceiving.

“On close examination (fake IDs) don't even come close to having some of the obvious security features we have on our own Saskatchewan drivers license.”

Kline acknowledges that fake IDs have been around for a long time and likely will continue to pop up, though he wasn't able to say how many may be in use or seized at any given time. But he insists Saskatchewan's ID card remains among the most secure in the world. He says there's a long list of security features that make it so, from hologram windows to micro printing to laser etchings.

“There are also other features in our card for forensic purposes that only the police are aware of so that if they need to establish what was legitimate versus what was produced fraudulently that could be done.”

Kline is hopeful those measures, combined with the risk inherent in breaking the law, will be enough to dissuade underage teens from trying to get into the bar early. He notes the penalty for possessing a fake ID can be as high as $50,000. You can lose your real license too.

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