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Would lowering the age limit for drinking alcohol from 21 to 18 help curtail binge drinking that’s become prevalent in colleges and universities?
About 100 college and university presidents, of which the presidents of Arizona’s are not listed, are pushing for just that, hoping to get states to consider lowering the drinking age to 18.
The question being raised is one that has become almost an age-old generational question in the United States.
The drinking age of 21 was set when Congress approved it and President Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1984. The idea was an effort to try and improve safety.
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That, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving and federal agencies, is just what occurred.
According to MADD, between 1982 and 1998 there were 61 percent fewer drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes under the age of 21 and a 56 percent decrease among 21- to 24-year-olds.
MADD also cites studies that have found that teenagers have slowed their alcohol consumption rate at a young age.
“In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control looked at 49 high-quality peer-reviewed studies of the effects of changing the minimum drinking age law. Almost every study found that increasing the minimum drinking age to 21 saved lives (an average decrease of 16 percent) and that lowering the drinking age to 18 or 19 caused an average increase in crashes of 8 to 10 percent,” according to the MADD Web site.
Does that mean alcohol use has stopped altogether? No. And it doesn’t mean that by raising the age limit for drinking that it’s made the problem go away.
We don’t believe the issue of underage drinking will ever go away.
The reason the college presidents are making their stand is based on the recent binge drinking reports, ones that come from their own campuses. Binge drinking is when someone drinks heavily in one sitting, but may only be an occasional drinker.
There is a safety issue, not only for those on the road, but also for those who are drinking. There is brain development and other physical growth in young adults.
And while many other nations around the world allow people 18 and younger to drink, would that fit the United States. The question becomes one of culture and habit.
When you add these questions up, does that mean that lowering the age limit to allow drinking is the right thing to do?
We’re not convinced. There’s too much evidence that increasing the legal drinking age to 21 has helped reduce the number of traffic fatalities and related driving offenses. There are more than 20 years of studies to show it.
As for the matter that teenage drinking will always occur, that’s likely a fact. It’s never going to stop. But we raise the question of whether lowering the drinking age may provide more alcohol for high school parties because friends who were 18 could be the suppliers.
And, in our final thought, it’s about the health of maturing young people. Alcohol is the most abused drug in this age bracket. By lowering the age to 18, we fear it would become more widely circulated. That would cause an increase in health problems, and it could make community streets around the nation more dangerous.
Now isn’t the time to change the drinking age. We think the college presidents should be looking for better ways to change how youth are educated about drugs and alcohol throughout the United States. They also could look at how home life impacts the kids who do drink heavily in college.
They would find better solutions there.
hmm... wrote on Sep 3, 2008 8:58 AM: