I hear this being discussed a lot of late. From the Baltimore Sun:
Top university officials in Maryland - including the chancellor of the state university system and the president of the Johns Hopkins University - say the current drinking age of 21 “is not working” and has led to dangerous binges in which students have harmed themselves and others.
Six college presidents in Maryland are among more than 100 college and university presidents nationwide who have signed a statement calling for a public debate on rethinking the drinking age.
“Kids are going to drink whether it’s legal or illegal,” said Johns Hopkins President William R. Brody, who supports lowering the drinking age to 18. “We’d at least be able to have a more open dialogue with students about drinking as opposed to this sham where people don’t want to talk about it because it’s a violation of the law.”
[…]
Each state has the authority to set its own drinking age, but in 1984 Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which says that states with a drinking age lower than 21 will lose 10 percent of their federal highway money. After that law passed, all 50 states raised their drinking age to 21.
The first step for the presidents is to work for repeal of that law as part of next year’s transportation reauthorization bill. They recognize the challenge, given the passions ignited by the issue, but say they are desperate to confront the problem of drinking on and off college campuses.
My own opinion is as follows: I know all the arguments about allowing 18-year-olds to drink alcohol. They’re old enough to vote, fight in wars, marry, etc. I remember the first time the drinking age was lowered. I was 18 and living in Northern New Jersey. Many had already made the weekend rite-of-passage — heading to “upstate” New York to hit the bars there where 18 was legal. I didn’t participate. Then, N.J. lowered it’s drinking age.
I remember this: Increased drunk driving accidents. More brawls in bars and parking lots. Some kids drunk in school during their senior year when they were already 18. More incidents of sexual assault fueled by alcohol.
Yes, there’s plenty of underage drinking going on now but at least it’s normally confined to parties or frat houses, not to our streets.
So, call me an old fogy but I see no reason to legitimize drunken behavior by teenagers. Some are drinking now. Let’s not encourage or give the stamp of approval to more.
21 Responses to “Lower the Drinking Age?”
on 19 Aug 2008 at 7:31 am # Gregory Morris
Who needs personal responsibility when you can let the government decide what you can/can’t do?
I understand the reason behind the drinking age of 21. It is statistically far better, when compared to a drinking age of 18. The problem I have is that people call it a “drinking age”. I believe there should be no drinking age what-so-ever.
Alcohol is not bad in and of itself, only misuse of alcohol is bad. Early prohibitionists were misguided by evangelical preachers regarding the use of alcohol, leading to a prohibitionist culture. We saw how well prohibition worked, yet that mindset remains.
People take this simple chemical compound, which humanity has utilized since the beginning of time, and make it something “special” only for “adults only” instead of teaching children that there is an appropriate time and place for it. This leads to over-indulgence when access is finally given to the mysterious substance.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 8:46 am # Boyd
Either they’re adults, or they aren’t. I’m the same age as you, Jeff, and I don’t recall any massive problem caused by 18-20-year-olds being able to drink, albeit I was in Texas and not NJ.
The age 21 drinking limit is just more nanny-statism. If we treat 18-year-olds like adults (and that means the good and the bad of being an adult, such as being held responsible for one’s actions), then they’ll act like adults. Either by behaving responsibly to begin with, or by being punished for impermissible behavior.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 9:03 am # Sailorcurt
I’m surprised that someone who classifies himself a libertarian…even a small “l” one…would hold such an opinion.
Which article of the US Constitution grants power to the federal government to regulate the age at which someone may choose to consume any particular beverage?
Leave it up to the states. That’s where these decisions properly lie.
May it increase drunk driving? Possibly. May it increase incidents with young people in altercations? Possibly.
No one ever said liberty was supposed to be risk free.
Wow…that sound a lot like the arguments in support of gun rights.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 9:37 am # Quentin
Jeff
You are utterly, and completely wrong on this one. There are two things an 18 yr old cannot legally do, that a 21 yr old can. Drink alcohol, and buy a handgun.
By god, if you’re old enough to vote, get credit, get married, enlist, fight and die for your country, then you’re old enough to drink. Period.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 11:13 am # Madrocketscientist
When will people realize that binge drinking is not about age or maturity, but instead about culture. Kids drink because it is illegal and it allows them to snub their noses at the adults who control their lives. Maybe if parents took the time to teach their kids to drink responsibly (like mine did), drinking would not be such an attractive way to rebel.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 12:32 pm # Madrocketscientist
I should add that I grew up in small town Wisconsin, where parents were all to happy to let their kids throw a party at the farm way out in the country. They’d take the car keys and hand over the keg tap, and they’d let the kids get drink while adults were around keeping an eye on things. Very few of my friends found the need to get blasted on a regular basis.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 1:51 pm # straightarrow
I have been drinking more or less regularly since I was 15. I never did any of those things listed as the down side in your post. Many of my friends were the same. I am unaware of any of them doing those things, with a few exceptions, and those sonsofbitches were assholes sober.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 1:59 pm # KCSteve
Never been a drinker - just a personal thing - but I remember the days of 3.2 beer. Harder to get really drunk on it but there were those who were willing to make the effort.
Always thought it wasn’t a bad idea.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 5:19 pm # john of sparta
how about something worse?
the government establishes Minimum Ages,
well, how about Maximum Ages for those
activities that do not have a max age listed?
at 16=driver’s license, 70=hand it over.
at 21=handguns, 75=turn ‘em in.
don’t laugh, some state some day will
institute it, just like the 21y.o. drinking age.
maybe, by the time i’m 70, we won’t have
to actually “drive” anywhere. the GPS system
in my Toyota will automatically operate the
vehicle (just like Microsoft handles the internet.lol.)
on 19 Aug 2008 at 6:13 pm # Sevesteen
I oppose the federal drinking age because it is federal interference where they don’t have a right to go. The federal government should never be allowed to blackmail states into passing laws that the feds can’t pass themselves.
On the other hand, I’d probably want my state to keep the age to 21. If we were to get creative, 18 if you are a high school graduate, otherwise 21.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 7:18 pm # RAH
I have a 18 yr old son and I would like the drinking age lowered to 18. I have offered wine to him since he was 15 at holiday dinners to get him use to drinking with a meal and the purpose is to enjoy the wine with a meal and not get drunk.
He is allowed to have a glass or two in the evening when he is not going out. He has been very careful not to drink when he went to the beach, because the cops watched out for that and are hot to arrest teens drinking.
I go to my father’s grave and bring the rum and coke and salute my father and pour a drink on the grave for him. My father enjoyed his rum and coke when he got home and going out to a restaurant and have a drink and a snack. That was part of his enjoyment of life espaecially when he was in a wheelchair.
Considering that the cops like to stop my son since he drives a Camaro all the time and they make him take sobriety tests, he is glad that he never had a drink. He knows the risk.
Last Saturday a neighbor had a party and they are Mexican and they were drinking . After two am I heard the tires squeal and then raced past my house and bang and two more bangs. I was out like a shot with my son just behind . The drunk idiot did not make the turn and ran into a brick retaining wall and then tried to back up and tapped a few other cars and then his car dies. My neighbors grown son was out having a cigarette and yanked the passenger out of the car window and slammed him down. BY that time only 30 seconds about 15 neighbors were at then scene and within 10 minutes we had a crowd of 30 by time the cops came.
The driver was 25-30 Hispanic male so teenage drinking was not the problem. So the 18 year old can drink because even the adults binge drink and drive.
on 19 Aug 2008 at 7:20 pm # RAH
The states can change the age, just lose the 10 % highway funds.
on 20 Aug 2008 at 12:49 am # straightarrow
I have a solution to the highway funds coercion. Every time a state road crew comes upon broken asphalt or concrete or mangled guard rail, load it up until you get a truckload, then the governor has it sent to DC and dumped in the street. Just returning your part of the problem submittal form and all.
on 20 Aug 2008 at 11:36 am # ron
“The states can change the age, just lose the 10 % highway funds.”
That comes from the citizens of the states in the first place. Nice.
on 20 Aug 2008 at 11:51 am # Keith
A few observations on drinking cultures:
I’m English by birth, lived and worked (both together) in about half a dozen countries and visited lots more.
Generalization;
northern Europeans and the cultures descended from them, eg, USA, South Africa, Kenya, Australia, NZ, seem to regard getting shitface drunk to be almost acceptable. almost all have strict age limits and strict enforcement.
Along with that, are problems of arseholes pretending to be viking warriors in valhalla, shitface drunk and making fools /nuisance/menace of themselves, and with the results in unplanned pregnancy violence and accidental death clear to see, not to mention lost work and poor performance at work.
Southern europe (including France) generally has a lot freer and less restricted access to drink and much much lower tax on drink(veterans of the Algerian wars in France, together with many very old people have life long rights to distill their own spirit for theirs and family use).
I’m not going to say that alcohol consumption is lower (France leads the world in cirrosis of liver), but social opinion is that if someone gets stupid with drink, then they are childish and have not learned to enjoy within their capabilities. A warm summers night in an Itallian market town will see big groups of young people sitting at cafes, talking, laughing, having fun and drinking…coffee!
The contrast in summer and winter holiday resorts between those popular with northern europeans and southern europeans is amazing. Resorts popular with the French and Italians don’t have the noise, the fights or the piles of frozen “pavement pizza” with diced carrots…
best analysis I heard was from an Irish building site foreman, criticizing a badly hung over youth:
“Thinks he can drink like a man… You haven’t learned to drink like a man ’til you can get up and do a man’s work the next day…”
Keith
on 20 Aug 2008 at 12:26 pm # Chris
Feeling outnumbered?
Let’s put this in different terms… suppose, for instance, that you were to deny kids under a certain age the ability to handle firearms. You can’t buy guns until you’re 21 (or 18, depending), why should you be allowed to shoot them? No education, no experience, no training, and all of a sudden, you’re 21, now you can buy a gun, and since you have no experience with one, you are much more likely to act like an idiot with it.
I prefer having my children learn good, safe gun handling skills as early as possible. As each reached a maturity level that I felt comfortable with, I took them to the range. Each of my children demonstrate excellent gun handling skills, and I have no fear that they will act irresponsibly with one when they purchase one of their own.
Why is drinking any different? I’m fine with a state mandated (feds have no business interfering in any case) age for purchasing, but the state telling me how I should raise my children is unacceptable. If I were to do as I wish, and teach my children how to drink responsibly, I would be committing a crime!
on 20 Aug 2008 at 6:05 pm # Nimrod45
I must disagree with you, Jeff. Like guns, if you “mystify” drinking, all you’re going to get is binge drinking and all the problems you present as your argument against. Top this off with all the booze ads showing everyone partying and having a good time, coupled with the nanny-state infantilization (immaturisation?) of the populace, and you’ve got a real recipe for disaster.
Folks should lighten up. As pointed out, southern european families introduce their children to responsible drinking in a family setting, so they aren’t as likely to go hog wild once they are “allowed” to indulge.
on 21 Aug 2008 at 11:07 pm # grady
My thoughts have been that 18 year olds are adults and deserve the priviliges that go with it. Drinking is included. The problem is not the alcohol, its the abuse of it. If we have a problem with public drunkeness, disorderly conduct, drunk driving, etc, then make the laws against those actions. Why penalize 18 year olds that can handle the responsibility that goes with access to alcohol?
If you drink and drive … take the license for the time deserved.
If you get drunk and disorderly … serve your time/pay your fine and/or have a probation condition of no drinking for whatever amount of time.
I also think its wrong for the feds to hold money over the states heads. If its not a federal law (which it should not be), then the states should make their laws as they see fit.
on 22 Aug 2008 at 7:13 pm # Fred
The colleges have used drunken college students as one of the main excuses to deny concealed carry permit holders from carrying on campus. They want to lower the age to remove legal responsibilities.
I think young people should be taught by their parents to drink responsibly. It sure as hell is not the business of the Feds.
on 26 Aug 2008 at 1:08 am # OrangeNeckInNY
I was drinking an ounce or two of beer at least twice a week with my Dad starting when I was 5 till I was 7. Along with drinking the beer, he also taught me that if I drank too much I would get drunk (which I never did). I never touched alcohol again till I was 18. I was also a responsible drinker. Nowadays, I drink a glass of wine a night. I see 50-year-old adolescents who are still trying to pickle their livers and then get into their cars to drive home. It’s all about responsibility, Jeff. Whether you’re 18 or 21, it’s all about responsibility.
on 30 Aug 2008 at 5:24 pm # The dude
Ok so lets see here… anybody can get drugs and alcohol at any age they want… Also im 18 year old. im a legal adult and i dont think that the government should have the right to be able to tell me if i can drink or not drink. its my own right. if i want to drink when im 18 years old i WILL DRINK. this hole idea of the law being 21 years old… thats not stopping anything people. i have rights as well as the rest of all of you. nobody as any right to tell me if i can or can not drink at 18.