College: Why Not Lower the Drinking Age?

Unless the 18-21s get their voter turnout numbers WAY up, they're not going to get bupkes. But if the drinking-age proposal included a way for bars and stores to save on insurance etc. for still serving over-21s only - lots of places would just as soon not deal with 19-year-old drunk knuckleheads - and if the proposal allowed under-21 drinking for active-duty military (with commanding officer's permission), and if the DUI penalties for under-21s were goosed again...well, maybe I'd go for it.

Guess what? East of the Mississippi only Indiana, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania were the only states to keep their drinking ages at 21 in 1975. So the cops surrounded the borders of the states and waited till they saw 18- 20-year-olds traveling hundreds of miles just to find freedom. This was real easy for those states to wait till the war ended and say the policy didn't work. So the government chooses not to show the thousands of 18- to 20-year-olds driving to Canada and Mexico every year and dying and getting DUIs. Shame on MADD and all the liars in the government that are actually killing our young people!!

According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, 25,000 lives have been saved because of the 21 law. If you'd like to question or reject this assertion, there's a new site that allows the experts to go head to head on these issues. Check out http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/should-the-drinking-age-be-lowered-from-21 to see the main players debate the drinking age.

Here is some additional information on underage drinking. Last week, Nationwide Insurance released a survey containing some of the most recent public opinion on the topic. This Nationwide Insurance Survey on Underage Drinking was done in April 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation, an independent third party.

Among the key findings:
More than half of the adults say they are less likely to vote for a state representative who supports lowering the legal limit.
Americans continue to overwhelmingly reject an ongoing push to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18.
72 percent of adults think lowering the drinking age will make alcohol more accessible to kids.
Nearly half believe it would increase binge drinking among teens.

Organized efforts have been under way in nine states in the past year to lower the drinking age.

For other key findings: http://www.nationwide.com/newsroom/stop-underage-drinking.jsp

Drinking for those who are 18 to 21 is as much of an act of defiance as it is an experience. The key to drinking is the act of moderation and if we simply assume that all an 18, 19 or 20 year old will do when allowed to buy alcohol is get hammered so badly, he or she'll think the bar stools are humming, we're going to be pursuing the same old strategy of denial and total lack of compromise that only keeps the status quo.

Has anyone thought of moderation laws like exist in Europe? In England, children as young as 16 are allowed to drink. But only certain, low alcohol beverages. And only with a parent or a legal guardian present with them. And the parent cannot be drunk and rowdy at the threat of police intervention.

The whole point is to slowly build up the tolerance of teenagers to what alcohol is and the fact that drinking just to get drunk is not the goal of going out to a bar. When drinking is no longer a forbidden fruit, but a treat, that's when we can change things for the better when it comes to drinking. Prohibitions don't work. That was found out in the 1920s.

Ithink all things considered adult be the same age. You can vote get married pay taxes fight for your country but not drink a beer. It should all be 21 then until your an adult instead of picking and choosing what rights an adult has.

Here's an idea: Don't lower the drinking age to under 21, and don't send anyone under 21 off to war. Thanks for the great article.

I grew up in the same time period, and I also remember driving over the border from New Jersey to New York when the drinking age was 18 in New York and 21 in New Jersey. Before NJ lowered the age to 18, that put a lot of young drivers at risk. At a liberal arts college in upstate New York, I was drinking 3 times a week, far more than I ever did once I turned 21. I think lowering the drinking age will only give young people more opportunities to drink, and as the statistics show, cause more driving accidents. The university presidents are concerned with their own liability and inability to enforce the drinking age. Changing the law will not eliminate the real problem, only their responsibility for it.

Does any of this really have anything to do with how biologically old a person is? Whether you're 13 or 16 or 18 or 35, it's a good idea to know what you're getting into when you make the decision to drink alcohol.

"Am I too drunk to drive?" is not a question to be asked after you're already too drunk to drive. So, discuss a game plan with your children, starting when they're about 7 years old, and don't stop talking. Educate them on how alcohol affects the brain, so that if they plan to drink, they'll know to plan for a safe ride later on. Teach them with love that everybody makes mistakes, and that you'll be willing to help in a nonjudgemental way should they falter.

Binge drinking happens because it's cool to drink. We're trained from a very young age that we're supposed to have a drink in our hands when we're at a party or when we're relaxing. So, talk to your kids, starting when they're about 7 years old, about binge drinking and social situations. Give them concrete methods for making good decisions.

I've been talking about this stuff with my children forever. I'll never stop. I don't say, "Don't drink." I say, "If you drink, here's what's going to happen to your brain...."

I also love to point out when my kids have a stomach virus or major tummy ache that that's pretty much how a person feels for an entire day after getting drunk. "Do you really want to do that to yourself on purpose? Why would you want to waste an entire day feeling yucky? Just don't bother."

Responsible drinking is directly proportional to responsible parenting.

IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY!
The college presidents are hypocrites who use alcohol to attract students! I attended the University of Dayton in the mid to late 1980's. They talk about responsible drinking, but they put in a pub, and they serve alcohol at all alumni functions. Why? Because their alumni demand it! I saw the parents of a sorrority sister praise a fraternity house for having kegs in the basement! Party schools attract alcoholics who choose a college they really can't afford and then they flunk out because their drinking habit is out of control. The schools aren't selling an education, they're selling an alcoholic lifestyle! The only reason the presidents want the drinking age lowered is so that they can make more money legally selling alcohol to students who are going to sneak it anyway!

The real solution is to outlaw drinking on campuses no matter how old you are. No serving wine at alumni functions, either. If you can't stay sober, you can't have an education. Randomly drug and alcohol test students, and they'll stay cleaner, longer.

Getting ready to send my daughter off to the "whole new world" of college, I appreciate the opportunity for conversation. "Amethyst" just makes a complicated issue sound cool. Call it what it is - taking 3 years off the ability to make good decisions about something that takes away your ability to make good decisions. Love your blogs and columns.

well of course the new law is going to save some deaths related to alcohol......lets use some common sense if less people are allowed to drink, won't the numbers go down...but if you look at it proportionally, the percent is almost identical, so is it really helping?

Personally, I do agree with lowering the drinking age. But, I think there should be a liquor license that comes along with it. That way if tweenagers are abusing their privileges they can be punished for being stupid. In this case they would lose their license and wouldn't be able to drink until they are 21. This can also help monitor purchases of liquor. Such as, there would be a limit to how much they can purchase individually. This would give the moderate drinker (1-2 drinks for men, 1 for woman) a chance to gather with friends and have a good time. I dislike kids who give young adults a stereotype that 'all they want to do is get drunk.'

Well I am 19 years old and I am in college and I do drink. But when I was growing up my parents did not tell me that drinking was bad for me, they just told me that I would not feel that great after I had drank. Well, when I was about 15 my parents started letting me try their drinks out here and there. They told me that if I ever did drink at a party to think about why I was doing it and if I continued to drink that to call them and so that they could come pick me up. So I took this as they would not be mad at me if I did drink so i knew that I did not have to go behind there back to do it.

So then when I got to college I knew that it was okay to drink, but just watch how much I did drink so I could still make good choices. So when I do go out I drink but not to "be cool" but to have fun. I watch my intake and every thing is good. So I think that more parents should be more open minded about younger age drinking and not so pushie about not drinking at all, because lets face it did you have a drink or two when you where under age? So I do think that the age for drinking should be lowered and I think that less kids would drink because know they are only doing it because they are breaking the law and that is cool to them.

well being a teen in high school i see kids hung over all the time. then when i go to my dads some times we have bbqs and theres all was some one going to git beer and every one how comes has kids. its wrong to see parints drinking in frunt of the kids and the older boys sometimes go and still a beer and go in the barn its sab to see things like that. i donnt think it shude be lowered.

well being a teen in high school i see kids hung over all the time. then when i go to my dads some times we have bbqs and theres all was some one going to git beer and every one how comes has kids. its wrong to see parints drinking in frunt of the kids and the older boys sometimes go and still a beer and go in the barn its sab to see things like that. i donnt think it shude be lowered.

well being a teen in high school i see kids hung over all the time. then when i go to my dads some times we have bbqs and theres all was some one going to git beer and every one how comes has kids. its wrong to see parints drinking in frunt of the kids and the older boys sometimes go and still a beer and go in the barn its sab to see things like that. i donnt think it shude be lowered.