INDIANAPOLIS - Beginning July 1, any resident of Indiana must present a valid photo ID to purchase alcohol for offsite consumption, the Associated Press reports. The new state law pertains to convenience stores, drug stores, grocery stores and liquor stores. Restaurants, bars and other places where customers drink onsite are exempt.

The law is designed to alleviate the guessing game clerks make when determining a customer??s age and should help catch minors attempting to purchase alcohol, said Scot Imus, executive director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

In February, some convenience store chains, including Speedway and Village Pantry, started a mandatory carding program after an Indiana Excise Police operation discovered undercover minors could purchase alcohol from convenience stores around a quarter of the time, Imus said. "Although our non-compliance rate was significantly below the statewide average when compared to other alcohol retailers, particularly liquor stores who sold to minors 40 percent of the time, we looked at what else our industry could do," he said.

"Our members found it troubling that any alcohol was getting into the hands of minors," said Imus. "Hopefully, with the new policy, a new study would find zero percent sales to minors."

However, one state representative thinks the law is overkill. "It almost seems silly to ask anyone who goes in to buy beer to show their ID. That??s not how the minors are getting alcohol, said Rep. Woody Burton. "The problem isn??t that older people are buying alcohol. ?? The problem is that the alcohol is right next to the potato chips in all these grocery stores, where any minor could sneak off with it."