A Spirited Debate On A Lower Drinking Age

More Than 100 College Presidents Say Reducing Drinking Age From 21 May Cut Binge Drinking

(CBS/AP)  There's a new push to change the drinking age, and it's coming from an unlikely group of people.

It seems like an age-old question: Is the current drinking age of 21 the appropriate one, or should it be lowered, to 18? The answer is lowered, according to a movement called the Amethyst Initiative.

College presidents from more than 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, were recruited by the Amethyst Initiative more than a year ago to provoke a national debate about the drinking age. And provoke it has.

While petitions are being circulated on some campuses to lower the legal drinking age, other activists say such a move would only cost more young lives to alcohol and alcohol-related accidents.

The drinking age was raised to 21 nationwide in 1984 when Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act.

"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who founded the Amethyst Initiative. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."

Caitlin McCarthy, a University of Arizona junior, said, "Should they initiate the draft, you know, the age is 18. If we can go out and fight and die for our country, and you can't have a beer, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me."


An Epidemic Of Binge Drinking

Studies tells us parents like the drinking age as-is. But many students disagree. One told CBS News, "Whether the drinking age is 18 or 21 I don't think it really matters, because if people are going to abuse alcohol they're going to do it regardless of the law."

According to a 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health by the Department of Health and Human Services, 28.3 percent of Americans aged 12-20 (about 10.8 million people) reported drinking within the past month; 7.2 million were binge drinkers (at least 5 drinks in one sitting).

Alcohol is relatively cheap, is heavily marketed, and often packaged in youth-friendly products like sweet alcohol beverages and malt liquors. Accessibility is key: A 2002 study said that, despite laws against sales to minors, 11 percent of all alcohol purchased in the United States is consumed by underage drinkers.

With underage binge drinking on the rise, seven states have explored the possibility of lowering the drinking age.

McCardell said that binge drinking occurs primarily because students must hide their behavior.

In its statement (currently signed by 114 college heads), Amethyst says, "Twenty-one is not working" and "A culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking' - often conducted off-campus - has developed.

"Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students. …

"By choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law."

Research has found more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependance. One study has estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, and about 1,700 die in such accidents.

A recent Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005.

"We also need to keep in mind that alcohol-related traffic fatalities reached a ten-year high in 2006," McCardell said on The Early Show. "They've been going up in the last ten years. We also need to keep in mind that peer-reviewed research shows more than 1,000 lives of 18- to 24-year-olds are lost each year off the highways to alcohol. The evidence is not all on one side of this debate, and we need to consider all of those data and consider whether 21 is, in fact, serving us well."

But Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.

"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.

Dean-Mooney told The Early Show she was "alarmed" when she heard of the Amethyst Institute's statement, and suggests that those university presidents who signed on were perhaps misguided or misled.

"We know the 21 minimum age drinking law does work," she said. "There's 48 highly-backed studies to back the fact that the law does work. It saved over 1,000 young people's lives every year for the last 24 years. Why would we go back? We tried this in the '70s and '80s. It simply did not work then; alcohol-related fatalities went up in that age group.

"College presidents don't want this passed down to them from college presidents who are being irresponsible," she said.

When asked if raising the driving age to 18 would lower the risk of young people drinking and driving, Mooney discounted the suggestions. "We know that people continue to drive, for instance, after a drunk driving conviction," she told Early Show anchor Harry Smith. "They'll simply drive without their license. Up to 75 percent of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive. Why would we think that 18-year-olds would drive or not drive, you know? It's not the solution."

McCardell said the presidential statement released does not call for a change in the drinking age. "The presidential statement simply says that based on our own experience and 24 years of this law on the books, we believe there's evidence to show that 21 is not working - that it has had unintended consequences, and that it is well past time to open public debate about all of the effects of this law on our campuses and elsewhere."

Federal law would impose a heavy penalty on any state which opts to lower its drinking age: a loss of ten percent of its federal highway funds. "That penalty needs to go," McCardell said. "Removing that 10 percent incentive is the surest way to resume the debate that needs to take place."


Waving The White Flag?

Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.

"I'm not sure where the dialogue will lead, but it's an important topic to American families and it deserves a straightforward dialogue," said William Troutt, president of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., who has signed the statement.

But some other college administrators sharply disagree that lowering the drinking age would help. University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who served as secretary of health and human services under President Clinton, declined to sign.

[godzfan]

I love those MADD ladies. Pulling statistics out of their butts all in the name of their cause. These women are no different than Cindy Sheehan and her protests of the war in Iraq. They all have lost a loved one, whether it is from a drunk driver or an action of war,myself included with these people. But you cannot impose arbitrary laws on people because of their age unless it is an across the board ban on all activity that can cause death.
At 18 you can vote,be drafted,enlist in the military,fight in a war,but you cannot drink because you are to young to decide for yourself if you want to take a chance of drinking and dying.
But you don''t get the choice when you enlist of whether you want to go into a war zone and die.
Put the drinking age back to 18 they are going to find a way to buy it anyways.

[credibility2]

Leave the age at 21. The voting age should be raised to 21 as well; it was lowered during the Viet-Nam era and conscription; we don''t have that now. The argument that if someone can go to war and die for their country at the age of 18, makes no sense. Too many kids are just plain stupid and moronic who drink when they shouldn''t. Those that end up killing themselves by over-indulging get what they deserve. Kids that drink and drive and then kill or permanently injure should be given a life''s sentence in jail. Same for any so-called adult who does the same. Alcohol is a drug and impairs judgment. It''s lethal in the hands of kids, since they generally have impaired judgment when they''re sober.

[godzfan]

Carry A Nation was right, I think we should abolish alcohol altogether. It is the liquid of Satan and causes grave ills upon the land of Jesus.


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Posted by gop_forever at 11:24 AM : Aug 20, 2008
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Well Said, More bush regime rhetoric,A moral statement from the amoral majority.

[marcpcbs]

More Than 100 College Presidents say lower the drinking age.

This just shows the sad state of this nation%u2019s colleges.

These people thing it''s a good idea to let irresponsibility get hold of our kids even before they can spell irresponsibility.

[docpeter-2009]

From the headline, "More Than 100 College Presidents Say Reducing Drinking Age From 21 May Cut Binge Drinking"
_____________________
Not likely. More likely is that you will have younger less mature binge drinkers, not fewer, not to mention more DWI and DUIers on the road.

You''d think college deans, chancelors, predidents would recognize this.

[godzfan]

well credibility,That argument would work except as a nurse I have seen way more adults over the age of 21 treated for alcohol poisoning or die from it, than I have 18 year olds. Tell me again who has the impaired judgement sober.

[haoli25]

Yeah, sure, the age 21 law has worked SOOOOOOOO Well.

[marcpcbs]

The reason for binge drinking is that they sell alcohol in little containers so you have to drink several of them. Binge drinking would stop if they only sold all alcohol in 2 and 5 gallon containers.

this makes as much or more sense as lowering the drinking age.

[joberg03]

With the fact that if you are old enough to serve your country, your old enough to drink. They either, should change one or the other.

But in reality, I believe they should lower the drinking age. This is because at 18 you graduate from high school, should be considered an adult, whether you join the military or go to college. Its an important time in life and its a learning experience.
From what I get here, people belive that 18 year olds today are not resposible enough, and this is not true at all. We all make decisions in life, whether it is good or bad. Mistake can be made, thats life. When the drinking age was 18 back in the 1970''s , what changed?
In retorspect, we all have to look at the rest of the world, because it seems to me that American''s are most targeted for our mistakes rather, that what we do good, such as that of our high rate of drunk driving.
If drunk driving teenagers are the biggest concern here, lets get our governement to start actuallly running more public transportations, at all times of the day, 24 hours.
This is what Europe does! And their drinking age over that is 18! Its the government who is a fault, if kids today were given more options of public transportations, that ran all the time, again 24 hour services AND AT A LOW COST, our changes of drunk driving inccidents would decrease dramatically.
The European''s know what they are doing. They don''t put 16 year old KIDS behind the wheel either, which is a another topic for another day.

[docpeter-2009]

At 18 you can vote,be drafted,enlist in the military,fight in a war,but you cannot drink because you are to young to decide for yourself if you want to take a chance of drinking and dying.
But you don''''t get the choice when you enlist of whether you want to go into a war zone and die.
Put the drinking age back to 18 they are going to find a way to buy it anyways.

Posted by GodzFan at 11:28 AM : Aug 20, 2008.
______________________________________
Good response, I appreciate your thought, BUT instead of rolling back the drinking age to 18,how about a novel approach and idea. Lets up the age for voting, enlisting in the armed services, etc. to 21.

[jeff-fla]

-Good response, I appreciate your thought, BUT instead of rolling back the drinking age to 18,how about a novel approach and idea. Lets up the age for voting, enlisting in the armed services, etc. to 21.

if you raised enlisting to 21, no one would join. With youth there is impulse. With age there is rational decision.

[ozonmojo]

John MacCardell must be congratulated for mining antiquity for such a colorful name for the drinking initiative on behalf of the young.

[docpeter-2009]

if you raised enlisting to 21, no one would join. With youth there is impulse. With age there is rational decision.

Posted by jeff-fla at 11:45 AM : Aug 20, 2008
_________________________
Finally another reasonable, rational thinker.

[culturechang]

This is an uphill, Capital Hill battle. Washington drives the train on this with the granting of state highway funds. Its the way they extorted all the states to change from 18 to 21 in the 80s. It was simple....change or loose your federal funds. Congress is too stupid and stubborn to make sensible changes.....in any arena. They prefer the March of Folly that we have pursued since the 1970s. The March of Folly was defined in a 1984 book as "the perverse persistence in policies demonstrably unworkable and counterproductive". But they still cant budge....and they wont until the poeple vote differently.

[whyafghan]

Good response, I appreciate your thought, BUT instead of rolling back the drinking age to 18,how about a novel approach and idea. Lets up the age for voting, enlisting in the armed services, etc. to 21. if you raised enlisting to 21, no one would join. With youth there is impulse. With age there is rational decision.
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Posted by jeff-fla

If no-one volunteered, we would have a draft and I am quite sure that those flaming Liberals out there would cry like their was no tomorrow.

[rytom64]

If you can go off to a foreign land and die for your country, you should also be able to relax and have a beer IN your country. The ages need to be the same, one way or another.

[rytom64]

When I was 17, turning 18, they raised the age to 19. When I was about to turn 19, they raised it to 21. I was drinking at 15. Laws never stopped me. I hardly drink at all now, special occasions maybe. These laws are designed to make these fanatics feel better, that''s all.

[motherk-2009]

If the drinking age is lowered, then:

As in Great Britain, zero tolerance for driving with alcohol use.

As in some European countries, no driver''s license until the age of 21.

Might be some good ideas ~

[docpeter-2009]

Why are the ages choices 18 or 21? It seems to me that the appropriate drinking age is 19. That way there are no high school kids old enough to drink.

Posted by sunspro at 12:02 PM : Aug 20, 2008
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WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

I have known several 19 yo highschool seniors and juniors.

[jennmarikp]

I believe that if you are considered responsible enough at 18 to risk your life for your country you should DEFINETLY be able to drink a beer at 18!

[endpcnow]

to WhyAfghan:

It''s not only the Libs who would cry but the "social elite" ie . . . rich b@stards would too. No one from zip codes such as 90210 volunteers for the armed services.

[marcpcbs]

This is solid proof that the USA produces some of the dumbest smart people in the world.

[rytom64]

We forget the fact that drinking and fining/drinking and driving is a HUGE cash cow for the local and state govts. They won''t let that money go away, (as if they cared about public well being).

[midvale3]

to WhyAfghan:

It''''s not only the Libs who would cry but the "social elite" ie . . . rich b@stards would too. No one from zip codes such as 90210 volunteers for the armed services.


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Posted by endpcnow at 12:11 PM : Aug 20, 2008

No they wouldn''t, they would get deferments or their daddy would get them into the Reserve.

[rytom64]

Any time they consider passing a law, the first thing the politians and govt. officials ponder is :"How can we make money off of this ?" , that''s your bottom line. If there were no more drunk drivers to fine, they would be crying.

[aggiekat2004]

The problem is enforcement. Right now it''s a slap on the hand if you get caught, and the law is not a deterrent.

A sad situation happened a couple of weeks ago in College Station, Texas. 15-year old girl gets new RX-8 sportscar. Too young to drive, lets 16-year old boyfriend drive. 18-year-old brother of driver is in car, and they end up with a keg in the back seat. When the cops are summoned for a suspicious vehicle cruising in the neighborhood, the 16-year-old guns it, and runs into tree at 100 miles an house. All three kids die, burned to death. Over a keg.

[forasongca]

I turned 18 when that was the drinking age. Strangely, I don''t recall a single instance of a drunk driving accident - and especially no deaths from drunk driving - in either my high school or my college while I was there.

I believe that the problem isn''t alcohol; it''s stupidity. People don''t learn how to handle alcohol when they''re young, so they do stupid things. Someone drunk and stupid will still be stupid when they sober up. Give kids something more useful than the ineffective "just say no" pap, and maybe they''ll do something intelligent with it.

[nolalou]

At 21, the USA has the highest legal drinking age in the world. Frankly I don''t see how it is constitutional, since in every other way you are an adult with full adult rights at age 18. (you can get married at 18, but apparently, it''s illegal to drink champagne at your own wedding if you are under 21!)

Something for parents to think about, would you rather come home and find your 18 year old daughter drinking a glass of wine with a friend, or making love with her boyfriend on the sofa? So why is it the drinking is what''s not legal ???

[rytom64]

MADD is completely out of hand. They were harrasing by parents and their neighbors. They must want even more money.

[rf35]

I agree that if you leave the drinking age at 21, you should raise the voting, driving, and military service ages to 21 as well. Raise the legal age for seks, too. Bottom line: anyone under 21 is a minor. Or just reduce the drinking age to 18 and raise the driving age to 18. If you''re going to have a magic age for anything, it should be across the board.

From the article: "Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students. ..."

So why do Republicans think abstinence-only seks education will work any better?

[cbsfan73]

nolalou naively asked:
"Something for parents to think about, would you rather come home and find your 18 year old daughter drinking a glass of wine with a friend, or making love with her boyfriend on the sofa?"

One leads to the other.

[ricinboerne]

This is nothing more than a CYA action on the part of the colleges. They can''t police under-age drinking, nor should they have to, but they don''t want to be sued should some student die of alcohol poisoning or from falling off a third-story terrace after drinking a case of beer.

[questionnews]

Party on Wayne!! Party on Garth!!

[kristin1228]

I''m a firm believer that if you are old enough to go to war and fight for your country, you are certainly old enough to drink. get real america! we are one of the only countries that has issues/crimes related to drinking. it because of these ridiculous laws and the government trying to control everything we do...sick.

[usclimey]

A sad situation happened a couple of weeks ago in College Station, Texas. 15-year old girl gets new RX-8 sportscar. Too young to drive, lets 16-year old boyfriend drive. 18-year-old brother of driver is in car, and they end up with a keg in the back seat. When the cops are summoned for a suspicious vehicle cruising in the neighborhood, the 16-year-old guns it, and runs into tree at 100 miles an house. All three kids die, burned to death. Over a keg.

Posted by aggiekat2004

Sad for sure, but an RX8 for a 15-year-old?!?!

[swtgapch]

I find it very unnerving that a man or woman aged 18-20 can go to Iraq and possibly die for this country and not be allowed to have a beer after a hard day of fighting a war. There are more important issues out there than whether you are adult enough to fight this war but not adult enough to drink. Let ALL adults be able to drink and move on to more important issues.

[rytom64]

kristin1228:

They only try to control what we do so they can make money off of us. It''s the bottom line.

[mensarino]

I agree with so many others here---either lower the age to 18 for all rights or raise it to 21.Consistency should be the goal,whatever is decided.

[rf35]

A sad situation happened a couple of weeks ago in College Station, Texas. 15-year old girl gets new RX-8 sportscar. Too young to drive, lets 16-year old boyfriend drive. 18-year-old brother of driver is in car, and they end up with a keg in the back seat. When the cops are summoned for a suspicious vehicle cruising in the neighborhood, the 16-year-old guns it, and runs into tree at 100 miles an house. All three kids die, burned to death. Over a keg.
Posted by aggiekat2004

They died over the fact that they would have been in trouble if the police discovered the keg in the car. If the age for both driving and drinking were 18, this would have been avoided.

Legalize [pot] and ban alcohol for anyone under 30.
30 is recognized as being an adult in some countries.
Posted by nrgmizer at 01:01 PM : Aug 20, 2008

nrgmizer, welcome to America.

[honestabe8]

nrgmizer: i agree on the relative safety of pot versus alcohol, but i don''t want to ban alchol. just make the alcohol pushers compete with home grown pot for the recreational drug needs of the nation. i don''t see there any way that the alcohol pusher sales would not decrease.

[dkf218]

It is amazing to me that drinking alcohol is so important to people. Our media loves to make people believe that you cannot have a good time without drinking a beer. Don''t you think it is sad that we are debating about whether or not you can drink a can of beer. To compare fighting for your country to drinking alcohol is somewhat appalling - there is honor in defending your countries freedoms - where is the honor in getting hammered and acting like an idiot.

[myopinion381]

Whether the age is 18, 19 or 21 - if someone underaged wants to drink, they will. When I was in high school and under the legal age of 18, there were plenty of kids that had, or went, to parties and there was always a way to get booze.

[hwy71so]

I would support RAISING the age to 25, but I think the military folks have a point too.

[beader59]

I have a hard time with this one. Fighting in the military is a maturing part of a young person''s life. Most come out of the service with skills they would not have had otherwise. Drinking alcohol on the other hand has nothing to do with anything but getting drunk for most people between the ages of 14 and 20. What is the big deal with drinking. Spend this much effort on solving real issues. If you think changing the age will stop binge drinking, then just lower it to 14 and we will be set.

[rf35]

Here''s an idea: Keep the age where it''s at EXCEPT for military members. If you show a valid active duty military ID, you can buy alcohol.

[usclimey]

There are two big differences in the driving side of this argument between Europe and this country. Firstly, nowhere in Europe can you drive at 15. Most, if not all, you get a provisional licence at 17 (can drive with an adult). Only at 18 can you drive solo. Second the degree of driver ed. required in Europe is much higher than it is here. Most countries require 6 months to 1 year of lessons. I thisnk it''s easier and cheaper to get a private pilot''s license in this country than a driver''s lisence in Germany. If any one has per capita/ per age stats comparable for the US and Europe I''d like to see them. My guess is Europe''s numbers would be lower but not by much - 18 year old boys want to drive fast no matter what.

[far_point200]

Hmmm... Can''t drink a beer if you are 18, but you can murder your baby.

As Art Carney use to say on Laugh-in, " Very intersting, but stupid!"

[usclimey]

It is amazing to me that drinking alcohol is so important to people.

Posted by dkf218

Your post makes great points logically. Unfortunately the mind operates illogically when it comes to alcohol. Remember all the otherwise upstanding citizens arrested during Prohibition??

[myopinion381]

I know 18 year olds that would be more responsible than someone that is 21+. I don''t think it is an age thing but more of a maturity thing. There are plenty of people that are 30 , 40 , 50 , etc. that are in jail/prison for DUI and drunk in public.

[usclimey]

Hmmm... Can''''t drink a beer if you are 18, but you can murder your baby.

As Art Carney use to say on Laugh-in, " Very intersting, but stupid!"

Posted by far_point200

"PFeeeerrry EEEneresting" was Arte Johnson, not Art Carney. Laugh-in was a great show - bet it wasn''t real popular with conservatives though!!