What's your take on the drinking age?

The leaders of more than 130 U.S. colleges and universities, including Virginia Tech and Hollins, have called for renewed discussion of lowering the drinking age, which was set at 21 in 1985. They've signed a statement called the Amethyst Initiative to underscore their point.

What do you think? Do you remember when it was legal to drink alcohol at 18?  Should the drinking age be returned to that level? What could that mean for college campuses -- and society in general?

 

 The article referred to the "statistical war" between MADD and the Amethyst Initiative, but it seems like MADD is the only combatant actually armed with statistics. They have empirical data showing a reduction in alcohol related crashes and injuries for young people since the change in drinking age. Is there any data to support the Amethyst Initiative's hyposthesis? If there is, the AI may need to do a better job of getting this information out, because so far it seems like this is just an idea with no supporting evidence. In fact it seems antithetical. Young people are breaking the law to binge drink now. Why would we assume they will stop because the drinking age is lowered? Won't we just have more people drinking? I think we would almost certainly see an increase in DUI, disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

I believe binge drinking is not a reaction to the law but because it is, to steal a phrase from the RT, the hip thing to do. It is also a symptom of larger societal issues. These kids like being drunk and further enjoy the accompanying sense of invulnerability and the total abdication of personal responsibility. Further, young people are constantly bombarded with the message that not only must you drink to be cool, but to be really cool you must drink a lot. Arguments for lowering the drinking age, making last call later, allowing alcohol sales at publicly sponsored events, allowing advertisements for alcohol in any medium and in any setting all tacitly endorse the notion that one has to use alcohol to be considered normal. In and of itself, it is not a new idea. It was a quite common notion in my youth as well. Of course it was when we were in high school and it was called "peer pressure" instead of "the socialization process." Back then it seemed that the only people who bought into that reasoning were high school students, an admittedly immature group. It is saddening to see that now we must include university presidents in that group as well. I suppose there is no harm in discussing it, but in the end I believe decisions of this nature should be left to the voters, not the academics. 

 My take on the drinking age is that a person is old enough @ 18 to go to war, but not old enough to drink.It should be either 18 for the drinking age & joining the military or the age for joining the military should be raised to 21. 

Seems to me that colleges and universities wanting to lower the drinking age to 18 are looking for ways to increase revenue on campus.  Just think how much beer and wine they would sell by obtaining an ABC license.  And maybe in the back of their minds they are thinking they will be able to cut campus police staff because they won't need to monitor the drinking activities in freshman dorms.  But they are not thinking about the loss in life and loss of revenue when the drunk driving accidents take more lives (thus unpaid tuition for the next 1 to 3 years).  I was a college student in the late 80s and early 90s.  My friends and I disagreed with the drinking age at that time in life, but thank goodness the college president and board of directors didn't fight to lower the drinking age back then.  Now that I am a mom and face sending my son off to college in a few years, I don't want him to have easy access to alcohol his first time on his own. 

Alcohol and teenagers do not mix.  Teenagers don't make the best of decisions when they are sober - adding alcohol does not improve the decision making process.  As for raising the draft age to 21 - I'm all for that too.  Firearms and teenagers are not a better combination than alcohol and teenagers.

 

 

 

I agree 100%. Things that are "legal" are not as enticing to younger adults. Lowering the age may decrease the number of fatalities in auto accidents--I'm not doing anything illegal, so I will just stay here and drink.

 I think in order to have less teen age traffic deaths and binge drinking,18 should be the drinking age. but I also believe this should also be the driving permit age.Therefore at 18 you are subject to military,voteing,driving, and drinking.

 I know someone who is a security officer in the New River Valley...and he has told me a lot of stories regarding Virginia Tech students binge drinking parties...

Steger doesn't live in the real world.  He lives in an Ivory tower environment.  Currently Blacksburg and the property management companies are evading responsibility by not clamping down on the binge drinking parties taking place around the town.  There is an awful lot that gets swept under the rug. The almighty dollar always seems to win, regardless of whether or not the public is at risk.   If the RT wanted to make a difference, they should do some investigative reporting on just how bad things get around Tech, especially around the football season.  Property managers don't want to clamp down because they don't see it as their problem, and they don't want to loose tenants by becoming "the Narc complex."  Blacksburg doesnt want to get complaints and pressure from the bars, grocery stores, etc that make big dollars from party related purchases.  As I said before, it's all about the $.  Till someone gets killed from a drunk driver that is, then it will be all about pointing fingers and trying to re-direct blame.  Hmm, sounds a lot like the approach that happened following April 16th.

 

 Anyway, I don't see how Steger and the other college presidents feel that lowering the drinking age is going to reduce the binge drinking problem.  I think it's just something they might like to have happen to help take pressure off their shoulders to address the situation on campus.  IE: An additional attempt to evade responsibility.

 

As I stated above:  Ivory towers.....

DCR086:

 The article referred to the "statistical war" between MADD and the Amethyst Initiative, but it seems like MADD is the only combatant actually armed with statistics. They have empirical data showing a reduction in alcohol related crashes and injuries for young people since the change in drinking age. Is there any data to support the Amethyst Initiative's hyposthesis? If there is, the AI may need to do a better job of getting this information out, because so far it seems like this is just an idea with no supporting evidence. In fact it seems antithetical. Young people are breaking the law to binge drink now. Why would we assume they will stop because the drinking age is lowered? Won't we just have more people drinking? I think we would almost certainly see an increase in DUI, disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

[...]

I'm sure that we could further reduce alcohol-related accidents by raising the drinking age to 42, or 84; but that's irrelevant in my mind. Eighteen year-olds are treated as adults in every other respect, why not this one? Why should a responsible individual who's legally an adult be denied a basic freedom that other adults enjoy, simply because some other people their age have had some accidents? If drunken driving is a problem enact tougher penalties for doing it, but don't single out one group to treat as second-class citizens because they're statistically more likely to misbehave.

The only other option that would preserve any sense of fairness would be to change the age of legal adulthood. If you think 18-yo's aren't capable of being responsible with alcohol, how can you say they're ready for other adult responsibilities? They can be trusted with a gun, a vote, and a car, but not a beer? They can sign their life away to the military, but they can't handle a drink at the local bar? That seems strange to me.

 

As a now-sophomore in college, I understand why colleges would want to lower the drinking age; but while it would benefit college campuses, I know as a somewhat recent highschool graduate that it would NOT be a good choice at all for highschool students at the age of 18.

While I was in highschool, majority the students who drank underage subsequentially messed up their future by getting pregnant, dropping out, failing or later graduating highschool then losing the desire to go to college.

As for majority of the people I know in college, the more responsible one waited until graduating highschool before going off to college and partying.

Obviously partying is a huge role for college students 18 and up.

But for highschool students 18 and under, the biggest concerns should be sports, prom, finding a good college and graduation.

ULTIMATELY: If the drinking age is going to be lowered to 18 it should be only under the circumstance that the customer is enrolled in a college with a college student I.D. to prove it.

I think it is better this way.

if students don't have any parental involvment, than what's the point of making them wait til they are 21? Colleges should not have to be the students' parents at all.

The bad news is that if we do lower to 18 years, this mean some of our high schoolers who are 18 years old will be allowed to buy beer and pass it the younger kids

Other than that,  I think the legal adult age should be 21-- meaning that students  allowed to vote at 21, smoke at 21, and Parents are still responsible for them . In a way, kids are still considered "dependent" on their parents tax form if the parents are paying for their kids' college . Good news about moving up to adult age to 21 is that colleges can now report their kids' parents on their progress and health (think about VT shooting).

 

 

btw, I don't think anyone under 21 should go to war. I think they should go to military for training, but not war.

 

and if anyone who is 18, he has to proved that he is not in high school. I know that not everyone goes to college so they can't get a college ID (that would be unfair for people who struggled in school and did trade instead.  I don't think you would like it if you had some learning disability and you see all these 18 years old college kids drinking beer and you can't).

 I dont think they should lower the age limit, 21 now a days is not old enough either. And why are colleges wanting to lower the age they should be thinking more about educating the students then buying alcohol. Especially since Tech had so many bad things happen on and around their campus why would you care about age limit on drinking. Are you trying make things worse. No, do not lower the age limit on drinking leave it like it is plus they going to drink wether you lower anyway someone will buy it for them or someone wont check for ID.

The legal age should be lowered back to 18.  Or 19, to satisfy those that are worried about people still in high school being old enough to buy alcohol.  If 19 year olds can drink legally, they won't be forced off campus into overcrowded houses or basements.  They could actually socialize in public restaurants and bars which is much safer for everyone, and good for the local economy.  I'm amazed at the lack of students you see in bars/restaurants in college towns, and I'd guess it's because they'd all rather socialize together off campus where being 21 isn't an issue as long as someone is old enough to buy for all. 

It also takes away the thrill of doing something illegal which for some kids pushes them to overindulge believe it or not, especially those who have come from stricter households.  In other countries with lower drinking ages it's less of a big deal and they don't have the binge drinking problems we do here.

Most people turn 19 at some point in their freshman year, at that point they are immersed in a community of 18-24 year olds at their college or university and it just makes sense to let them buy and consume alcohol legally since they are supposed to be at the same peer level at that point.  It's kind of silly to think that a person magically becomes mature enough to consume alcohol at 21 anyway.  Supposedly you are an adult at 18 but you're considered to immature to have the legal right to consume alcohol.  It's a mixed message that creates more problems than it solves.

It's unrealistic to think that laws, parents, or education will stop underage drinking or binge drinking of course but lowering the age a couple of years makes sense and would improve things a great deal.  I don't see where raising the age has done anything positive, things seem worse.

  There is more to this story, as a former bartender (from the Richmond area, where I bartended private parties and in the employment of restaurant/bars; and also Northern Va, where I lived for a short period of time); I have some insights into this story.   Overall, I was in the food and beverage business that sold liquor for over 10 years - boy, do I have stories.