College Presidents Urge Lowering Drinking Age To 18

It seems counter intuitive - lower the drinking age to 18 to cut down on 18- year-olds binge drinking? 

But scores of college presidents are urging just that.

A coalition of college presidents, calling themselves the Amethyst Initiative, has signed onto a petition that is being presented to state legislators to ask that the drinking age be changed from 21 to 18.

The Amethyst Initiative includes college presidents from Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Washington and Lee, Colgate, Syracuse, Sweet Briar, Towson, Duke, Tufts, Dartmouth as well as other schools.

University presidents believe it’s impossible to stop young people from drinking, and the illegality of it all might just be encouraging the activity.

"Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer. By choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law," says the initiative.

Besides, the present efforts are not working and the concern is the illegality of drinking is part of the appeal.

"I think a lot of younger kids really incline themselves to drink because it's illegal. They are wanting to try something they are not allowed. If you lowered it, maybe it would not be such a sought-after thing to do." -- Andrew Huck, 18, Bloomington.

Purdue University President France Cordova is not signing onto the petition but says she says we need to find new ways to encourage young people to make responsible decisions about alcohol.

Butler University President Bobby Fong is signing onto the effort. He says that learning to drink in the homes of professors and after church taught him the role alcohol plays in a social fabric.

“We cannot provide that social fabric because serving alcohol is against the law,” he tells the Indianapolis Star.

The colleges feel that binge drinking on campus is encouraged by the law creating a culture of dangerous, illegal and clandestine binge-drinking.

The drinking age has been 21 since the 1980s and changing the age may present a challenge.  

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Nationwide Insurance are hosting a symposium on the issue in Washington in November. Its poll finds the majority, 75 percent of adults, say the present drinking laws should be supported and enforced.

MADD’s position is that keeping the drinking age at 21, reduces drunken-driving fatalities.

Drinking and driving is a leading cause of death among young Americans and many feel that lowering the drinking age will make the situation worse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 90 percent of all drinking by people under the age of 21 is in the form of binge drinking, and often results in fatal accidents.

An Associated Press study of federal data finds that 157 young people ages 18 to 23, binged on alcohol from 1999 to 2005 and drank themselves to death.

Binge drinking also can lead to sexual assault, falling off buildings, overdosing on prescription medication, or drowning in vomit as one becomes unconscious.

Binge drinking is defined by the CDC as bringing one’s blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 grams percent or above. That translates to five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in about two hours.  

Most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent.

A survey released in June finds that most young teenage drinkers are getting their alcohol from their parents or other adults.

Other nations look at the issue differently.

Many European countries have an 18 year old drinking age and after the U.S. raised its drinking age, from 1982 to 1992, many other countries had larger declines in alcohol-related accidents than the U.S.

The Amethyst Initiative, launched in July 2008, is inviting informed and unimpeded debate on the drinking age and how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol. #