College Presidents Promote Change in Drinking Age
Almost 100 university and college presidents are calling on Congress to reconsider lowering the drinking age from age 21 to 18 claiming that the current laws actually encourage dangerous drinking practices among underage students. The effort immediately drew opposition from several groups, including Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.The effort, known as the Amethyst Initiative, has been quietly recruiting college presidents and chancellors to sign its petition since July 2008.
The initiative was started by John McCardell, president emeritus of Middlebury College and founder of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit organization founded to "stimulate informed and dispassionate public discussion about the presence of alcohol in American culture and to consider policies that will effectively empower young adults age 18 to 20 to make mature decisions about the place of alcohol in their own lives," according to its website.
Law Routinely Evaded
According to the organization's "Statement" on the Amethyst Initiative website, the current drinking age of 21 has caused a "culture of dangerous, clandestine "binge-drinking" -- often conducted off-campus -- to develop. The statement also claims that, "alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students."
"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said McCardell. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."
But opponents of the initiative say the higher drinking age saves lives and they point to scientific research that backs up their claim.
More Fatal Car Crashes
MADD president Laura Dean-Mooney told The Associate Press that the Amethyst Initiative leaders are "misrepresenting the science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem." She said the lower drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes, research has shown.
Dean-Mooney also is urging parents to think carefully about sending their children to colleges whose presidents have signed the initiative petition.
"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Dean-Mooney.
Note: The word Amethyst is from two Ancient Greek words meaning "not" (a-) and "intoxicated" (methustos).
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Comments
What should be the legal drinking age?
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I honestly believe this effort is motivated by the desire for these institutions to avoid the liability of underage drinking, nothing more. If it was over the concern for students, let them lower their tuition. It’s a bottom line motivation for the money grubbing “educational community”. If the presidents of breweries made the same appeal would we even be listening?
The argument that you can join the army at 18 so you should be able to “have a beer” is false, too. A soldier in the military is very closely supervised. No one would argue that we shouldn’t be giving guns to all 18 year olds. Yes, you can be trained to be a soldier at 18, but that doesn’t make you responsible for your actions.
Colleges do not want to be responsible for enforcing the law and do not want to be extra liable for under age drinkers overdosing/dying from alcohol.
Colleges do not want the lawsuits.
Well if you can drink, smoke, and vote by the time you’re 18, I don’t see why you can’t drink. Plus, once something is legal, it’s not such a “thrill” to do it anymore.
Honestly, students in college are going to drink regardless of whether they are old enough to or not, alcohol is so easy to obtain, even younger siblings visit their underage brothers and sisters and drink with them in college. Changing this law makes all the sense in the world to me to avoid such binge drinking and to get the students used to handling the alcohol at an earlier age, plus very few universities even allow 18 year olds to have a car at the age of 18 on campus.
Nope. Raise it.
Lower the age to 18. 18 year olds can do everything else, they may as well be allowed to drink.
You can die for your country at 18. You can buy a car, a house, get married, etc.etc., but you can’t have a beer. If you can’t lower the drinking age, then I suggest you raise the legal age of being an adult to 21. By the way, I’m 47 and a non-drinker.
As stated before, college students and non-college students between 18 and 21 will drink no matter what the law says. I do believe that lowering the drinking age to 18 will take the taboo status away from alcohol and it won’t be such a forbidden fruit any longer to entice young adults to binge. At 18 a person can vote, make legal transactions and fight and die in the military. Why not allow them to fully participate in adulthood.
We you want 18 year old kids to go out and fight and die, they are the cream of the crop who just like any other age is or is not going to make mistakes depending on their mental makeup. We have been placed in a fairy tale world where are winning the drug war and yet every day I see more and more being found. Strange. If we expect them to die for us then we should allow them to drink.
When people are “adults” be it 16, 18 or 21, whatever age is decided on, and then let them make there own decision on voting, driving or drinking, and then also be responsibil for all acts.
Bob says, and Kevin seems to agree that “It’s a bottom line motivation for the money grubbing “educational community”. Read the article, guys! “The initiative was started by John McCardell, president emeritus of Middlebury College.” For those with limited vocabularies, “emeritus” means “retired or honorably discharged from active professional duty, but retaining the title of one’s office or position.” It is silly to suggest that McCardell has a financial stake in this – HE’S RETIRED!
The legal drinking age should be abolished. There is no real reason to have a drinking age. It is none of the government’s business how a child is raised especially with regards to what substances the parents choose or choose not to expose their children too; so long as physical assault is not occurring.
Cultures that expose children to alcohol have far less problems with drinking and driving and alcohol abuse. We need to integrate alcohol into our culture; not try and further prohibit it and drive its use further underground. Drinking is perfectly acceptable and children should learn that what is not acceptable is driving a vehicle in an impaired state whether from drinking, drugs prescription or otherwise, or lack of sleep. I don’t even listen to MADD anymore they just use emotion and not logic, reason, and evidence to back up what they are saying.
They clearly ignore that road safety in general has increased since the time the studies they use were conducted. They ignore other aspects of our culture such as urban sprawl that have as much to blame for America’s problems in general, including this problem as any other factor. People drink and drive because driving is the only form of transportation most communities have available, especially late at night.
Drinking and driving is the result of a lot of other factors other than just alcohol. Should people drink and drive? No of course not, but they will so long as other options are not viable and trying to avoid real solutions to this problem because they are hard is why this problem persists so much in the first place.
We could solve a lot of these problems through increasing urban density, mass transportation, and ending policies that encourage criminal behavior, such as drug prohibition.
The 18-drinking age will be a failure as it will make it move the illegality and ease-of-access down to the high school age group. The solution is complete elimination. Only then can young adults and children learn about proper alcohol consumption in an environment in which partaking in it in moderate levels is not illegal.
Isn’t it ironic that people who are supposedly mature enough to have sex and bear children, are (supposedly) not mature enough to drink alcohol?
Stop blaming the colleges. How about: blame the puritan parents (including those MADD mothers) who don’t teach their children about alcohol and then cry about children getting drunk. And by “teaching about alcohol” I don’t mean preaching “alcohol is evil! avoid it!” – that obviously doesn’t work. I mean teaching children how to distinguish between good wine and “cheap vino”; good bear and Bud; good single malt and cheap whisky, etc.
In my family alcohol was never forbidden to children after age 8 or 10 or so. On big holidays we could get a little bit of festive sparkling wine or our grandfather’s homemade Schnaps (diluted). Neither I, nor my sister, nor any of our cousins (that’s *male* cousins) ever engaged in binge-drinking or even got seriously drunk. All of us went to colleges/universities, went to student parties… But, unlike other student, we knew our limits and our way with alcohol. There was no thrill in drinking, and we could see no fun in getting drunk.
I think that teens are going to drink no matter what. So if the age was going to be lowered. It would be for the best. They would be more incline to do it in a safer monitored environment instead of stealing and sneaking around, getting into dangerous situations. I think that the drinking decision should be left up to the teen. I also think that there should be limitations and regulations. For instance, a higher fee and punishment for DUIs and yeah, I think you get the point.
I think that it would be safer and a better thing to lower the age, with limitations and tougher consequences.
It makes my hair curl every time I hear any argument about “allowing” kids to drink at any age. And if you want me to really be frank…it angers me that we treat DRINKING like its NO big deal and yet go CRAZY with rules and laws concerning smoking!! We o NUTS when we see someone “lighting” up.
Alcohol KILLS innocent people FAR more than a puff on a cigarette. At least that person smoking is making the choice to take their own life…NOT an innocent person ..since when did second hand smoking kill or mame innocent families and individuals who were simply driving their car not aware of the DRUNK driver on the road? So many teens and adults DIE nstantly because of alcohol related accidents, and from alcohol poisoning. I am willing to BET that the rate of deaths far out number 2nd hand smoking…or even first hand….And don’t forget the abuse drunken individuals physically take out on innocent people & family members.
NOw, don’t get me wrong…I’m actually happy when I am in a NON smoking inviroment, BUT, when I hear that there’s a debate, or argument about “ALLOWING” kids to be free to drink, I KNOW this country has gone MAD!! What is there to argue about? The GUTS to say NO to the kids and do something about it? The guts to stand up to the colleges and MAKE them take the responsibility for underaged drinkers? Like…how about Kicking them out of school and make room for kids that really want an education. Expell the 21 year olds that get drunk …why aren’t we making them responsible for their actions and TEACH them whats acceptable to our society?..And to hear Professors argue for it?!! SHAME ON YOU!!
Shame on adults or anyone that shrugs their shoulders and says..” OH, well, they’re going to drink anyhow”!! SURE they will as long as we have this attitude!! Why aren’t we taking the same attitude towards drinking as we do smoking?…IT’s NOT good for anyone!! Raise the prices so its almost impossible to buy..Tax it to death!! Oh….hmmmmmmm…I forgot, Democrats wouldn’t like that, the alcohol industry pays a LOT of their bILLS!!
And adults in politics or HIGH places who do DRINK don’t want to come down heavy on those who do….they would have to do some changing themselves!!!
Okay, Ott, I’d like to respond to your comment. I’m not sure you really understand what is really acceptable in today’s society. As a society, we accept that people drink and get drunk. We accept that college aged individuals have parties and get drunk all the time. If we didn’t, the media wouldn’t be able to play on it all the time. The fact that there are tons of successful movies that center around college drunkenness proves that our society accepts it. We may not like it, but we accept it.
I agree with many of the people on the forum to say that yes, the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Looking past the countries that ban alcohol all together, we are a country with one of the highest drinking ages in the world, and yet for some reason, we also have some of the worst binge-drinking problems in the world. Any correlation? People between the ages of 15-21 are going to drink. No matter what. I’m not saying that 15 year olds should be drinking, but the fact that they aren’t allowed to drink will make it happen. These are the ages where people go through the rebellious phases where they need to do what they shouldn’t. Again, if we are allowed to drink at 18, the excitement of it not being allowed at college really won’t be there.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving are completely against lowering the drinking age because they think there will be more drinking and driving accidents. They claim to have research behind them, but the kind of research they have could go both ways. There are already 18-20 year olds that are drinking and driving- if the drinking age is lowered, there won’t be more. It’ll be the same ones that would have anyway. The people that are going to wait for drinking to be legal aren’t going to be the ones that drink and drive. Seriously?
lower it to 18, 18 year olds can do everything else but drink and that’s retarted, if u can’t drink till your 21 make smoking and everything else 21
I think people are forgetting that drinking can be harmful. That an 18 year old isn’t responsible enough to know that after a few beers he shouldn’t get behind the wheel.
Well, I agree on what a lot of people are saying but not on everything. Regardless of the age limit there is, drinking alcohol has been a problem for a while and worse for those that drive under the influence and claim an innocent person’s life. Then, for some reason its always the drunk that nothing happens to them, just some minor cuts and bruises, its only because their body is loose and they have no idea whats going on. Crazy, isn’t it. I don’t agree with changing the age limit and if they do, it will take away the thrill for those 18 year olds. I hope they are being taught in school what type of horrible things it does to people, because it eats up that their liver and can make holes. And people that drink should be more responsible and stop driving, instead get a taxi or have a friend or family to give them a ride home, it saves from having bad accidents and not having to pay a crap load of money for a new vehicle, well also not having your insurance going up,too!
I think that it is a good idea to change the age because either way under aged people are still going to drink so now you wont have to worry about rebellion and doing it illegally!!
I feel very strongly that the drinking age should never have been raised from 18 in the first place. I live in NC and when I was 18 it was legal to drink. I do believe that there should be a very big deal when a person gets their license to emphasis the results of drinking and driving. These kids getting their licenses should be introduced to the videos of accidents and family members who have lost loved ones to drunk drivers. IF this had been shown to me, I would never had gotten behind the wheel of a car after drinking.
In Florida, it is mandatory to have a 4 hour course one drugs and drinking and driving.
Current research shows that the human brain does not fully mature until the mid 20’s. The earlier a person begins using any substance i.e.,alcohol, nicotine, THC, etc, the greater chance they will abuse and possibly become addicted to those substances, therefore even 21 year olds may not possess the maturity to drink responsibly. (Irene, I am not quite sure what being “supposedly mature enough to have sex and bear children” has to do with drinking. Who said 18 year olds were mature enough to have children? It appears to be quite the opposite. Besides, 12 year olds can have children.) Jason makes some very good points however, sadly many parents today are not responsible with their own drinking to be able to model responsible behavior for their kids yet that is where the teaching should come from. Maybe Jim is correct and the age for a legal adult should be 21. The 18 year old adult idea was a political ploy anyhow. Dying for your country, smoking or voting at 18 has nothing to do with drinking at 18. Isn’t it sad Kiera that our society “accepts” that people drink and get drunk at 18 and that movies glorify that and that college kids will party and get drunk? It’s those same parents that we want to model responsible behaviors that say “well, I did it in college so why shouldn’t they?” And then we have the behaviors at tailgate parties where young kids get to see their parents and other adults getting drunk, etc. By the way, how many college kids die every year from drunk driving accidents adn how many co-eds have been sexually abused whiule drunk?
Take a look at statistics! In states where the drinking age is 21 the alcohol related death rate of people under 21 is much lower than it was when the legal drinking age was 18. In a country where alcoholism is rising at an alarming rate I can’t even believe anyone who is supposed to be “well educated” and in control of our youth education would encourage the drinking age to be lowered! Wake up!
I think most people here are missing the point. The point really is not whether we think 18 year olds should be drinking versus 21 year olds. Really what is important is the age that someone in this country legally becomes and adult and can make decisions for themselves. At that point, the government should not be able to babysit you or be your watchdog. We are talking about each citizen’s right to privacy, and their right to make their own choices. Kenhawk says the brain doesn’t mature until your 20’s – but after 18 the government can’t tell you whether you can smoke cigarettes or not, they don’t tell you what to buy at the grocery, they don’t force you to exercise for you health or get the right amount of sleep. They don’t make you go to the dentist every 6 months or schedule your doctor’s appointments for you. And whomever said that young soldiers are watched closely in the army, explain to me then the high death toll and the number of soldiers that actually come back and commit suicide because of what they have seen. If a country depends on its citizens to speak for themselves (hence voting) and take care of themselves (hence taxes, emancipation, marriage, etc.) and take care of their country (hence armed services) upon turning 18, there is no tangible reason that the government has any right to infringe on its citizens privacy. The drinking law of 21 is unconstitutional because it expands government power to a place it was never intended to be, and it encroaches on the right to privacy of its citizens.
Leave it at 21, and raise the driving age also. You don’t have a right or shouldn’t have the feedom to kill people you don’t even know. And that’s what 40k accidents a year are. Far as I’m concerned they should charge $1,000 for first offense; $5,000 for the second; and if you get a third, you loose the license for at least a year. You’ve proven you don’t intend to follow the law. JMHO
When I grew up in New York, the legal drinking age was 18, and there were no more or no fewer kids drinking alcohol when it was raised by federal mandate to 21. The University of Buffalo served beer in their student union.
Somehow an 18 year old is too stupid and immature to have a beer, but a 16 year old is smart enough and mature enough to drop out of school. Uh-huh.
If you want to argue that a “kid” can enlist at 18 (17 in the Navy) then how’s this – leave the drinking age at 21 UNLESS you are active Military. Got an active Military ID? What’ll you have to drink, Soldier?
I am a college student and I personally believe that if anything, the age should be raised to 25. I am oly 21 but I can tell that my peers are not mature enough to evaluate when enough is enough.
Some people are missing the point here. The truth is if you are in the military you are responsible for the people around you! THERE LIVES!! There is just as much resposnsibilty there as there is in the hands of brain surgeon. On the same topic of responsibility, what about those that are in college and having having to be “RESPONSIBLE” for there work and lives on campus.
Another issue that is really controversial is the drinking and driving. Speaking from experience the only reason why myself or my peers would consider drinking and driving is because there is fear in calling someone like a parent. a lot of 18 year olds are still living at home accomplishing there senior year of high school. The support from a parent is not always there because just drinking under 21 is shunned upon.
Why dont people look outside there little box and argue this issue with more logic. cough cough, MADD
The number one cause of death in the 16-24 age group is alcohol-related traffic fatality.Isn’t it clear that there is a negative relationship between younger age and alcohol?
Let’s make the drinking age 25. It would stop that much more drinking and driving accidents. Why not 35? It would stop them too. Hell, let’s ban alcohol altogether! No more drinking and driving at all!
no no no no no!!!!!!!!!! i think they should lower the drinking age to 18.
no no no no no no they should lower the drinking age 2 18 just 4 da sake of it
ok well first off i would like to say that i dont think that there is any need to lower the drinking age at all. there really is no specific age on when u just magically or biologically just become mature to do certain things. if they think that allowing kids under 18 to drink is gonna be very dangerous then what makes u think that as soon as they turn 18 then theyre just gonna magically be mature enough to drink? if there is a 32 year old, an 18 year old, and a 16 year old then who do u think the 18 year old is gonna act more like? the 16 year old obviously and since they think that under 18 drinkers is dangerous and since 18 year olds still act like people under 18 and since the govt decided that ok u r and adult at 18 and that does not actually make u an adult because alls the govt is really doing is just giving an 18 year old more freedom and independence but they still act like under 18 people so its gonna make it more severe to drink because they think that under 18 year old drinkng is dangerous. 18 is not a magic number. its not like humans were just naturally born to be adults at 18. turning 18 doesnt just magically or biologically turn u into an adult. some people that r 18 r still not ready enough to be an adult because nobody gains the same amount of maturity at the same exact time. u cant rely on 18 to solve everything. and lowering the drinking age to 18 is just gonna enourage kids under 18 to drink because 18 is closer to being a kid and kids will start thinking that since they r lowering it then i guess we r close enough to being mature enough to drink so lets start drinking. and maybe an 18 year olds 15 16 and 17 year old friends will start asking them to buy them beer. it is absolutely non of the governments buisness to decide whether how u r supervised by your parents, whether u r mature enough to be an adult and do certain things, and it is none of their buisness to decide how your life is setup. parents decide on whether their kids r mature enough to be adults or not. not the govt. life isnt all about what the govt thinks and what the govt decides. age doesnt matter at all. age just shows how long a human being has been living on the planet earth for. if they cant lower the drinking to 18 then i think that if they should just leave it at 21, lower it to 19 so it doesnt come into high school, or raise the legal age to be an adult at 21. when people say that and 18 year old can fight for their country, vote, adopt a child but then they should be able to drink is not true. those have nothing to do with drinking at 18. because when u r in the army at least u r in control and u r meant to use guns and fight because u r told to so but nobody is telling u to drink or not because thats up to you to decide. and drinking can be just as dangerous as using guns because if u r really drunk then ur mind starts acting all stupid and u cant vandalize things, u can kill yourself and other people around u. and isnt that what war is about too? kinda similar huh? war is about fighting and death and drinking can be about the same to but at least when u r at war u r in control and u r supervised and u r meant to be out there and fight. and who in the world ever said that 18 year olds were all that mature enough to be an adult in the first place back in history? being an adult at 18 is just an opinion of the govt. it is not a fact. the govt is more powerful than just plane citizens so the govt decides on what people r aloud to do or not and decides how everything is setup. until that person can pay for their own bills, food, clothing, and etc… then they can be mature enough to be an adult and do what they want.
They should just get rid of the drinking age.In Europe they don’t have problems like us.The reason why that would help is because they would try it out have a hang over and be like wow i never want to do that again.
If the law needs to be changed, then all those who agree need to respond to their own congressman/woman and senators, if you voted then you have a say so, if you failed to register to vote you don’t have a say in this fight. I’m here to tell you it’s been an on going issue for years, let’s teach you how to drink responsibly, learn to say when is enough, but at the same time if you believe you can vote, join the Armed Forces to fight for your freedom to drink underage and break the laws that are currently in place then you need to get off your butts and speak up now, change is good, don’t wait. At the same time don’t allow this to become a bigger problem, help your fellow underage drinkers, now if any of you are of legal age and are buying alcohol for underage personnel you need to stop, the law will come after you for contributing to them. Keep safe, have fun enjoy life, be smart about your actions, think operational risk management. Physics at play.
first of all kids drinking is a reality, the best way to deal with this is to face it not deny it and say that colleges don’t enforce drinking laws. The reality is, is that they try but simply can’t stop it. I’m a college student and attend a college that has pretty heavy consequences for drinking it still goes on..a lot in fact. I think all of you adults are hypocrits in thinking it’s ok to give 18 year olds adult responsibilities without the priviledges. Why do you think 21 year olds are more responsible? they’ve been drinking for longer than 18 year olds, they drank illegally themselves. 21 is not a magic number where u become responsible all of a sudden. I also find it hypocritical for a person to be completely fine with an 18 year old going to war and have his head blown off just so a couch potato can enjoy free speech and such, but have a huge problem with those same 18 year old kids drinking. If you are mature enough to choose to risk your life for something, you are mature enough to consume alcohol. Those idiots who get wasted are always going to be there whether they are 40 or 18 it doesn’t matter.
I think there are a lot of points missing here. One of the biggest changes that needs to be made in this country is the attitude toward alcohol and drinking. There is an assumption that drinking will lead to overindulgence, accidents, and addiction. There is such an emphasis on alcohol being a drug–the #1 material needed to “party”. I believe it is our attitude that is the problem–not the substance or the legal drinking age.
I come from a family of alcoholics and I have seen first hand what alcohol abuse can do. I am making sure that I teach my own children that alcohol is a beverage and that using it doesn’t necessarily lead to abuse (because any substance can be abused). I’m also trying to become emotionally mature individuals because this is at the core of substance abuse behavior. I don’t think age has anything to do with it–there are hundreds of thousands of people who abuse alcohol, cause drunk driving accidents, and are alcoholics. They are that way because they are not emotionally mature to handle alcohol–it’s no longer just a drink/beverage to them. If you’re going to have laws to prevent drinking because of an assumed lack of maturity due to age, where are the laws to prevent drinking when a person lacks emotional maturity despite age?
Interesting that the drinking age debate also somewhat parallels the abstinence only vs. sex education debate. It’s really strange how we think that limiting access is going to solve anything.
hi im 16 i drink alcohol all the time i drink it and i play chugging games i also maintain a perfect gpa i have never gotten a grade below an a+ i have never driven drunk and noone ever does i have become very good at researching topics and i have a proven 185 iq which means im a genious hmmmmmmmmm kinda weird i thought when kids drink there grades decline and they do worse in school ha i laugh at u guys i mean honestly lower the drinking age and teenagers will stop going omg we have a chance to drink lets pound as many brewskis and drinks as possible cause if its legal and not hard to come by people wont have to look at it as if oh this is my only chance to drink for a while might as well drink till i pass out no they will go im going to enjoy this beer or vodka cranberry so they wont get as hammered as they wood if they only had one night every couple of weeks to get to drin