Lower The Drinking Age: College Presidents

[Kathianne]

Makes a certain amount of sense, the laws now encourage binge drinking on most campuses:

http://www.nysun.com/national/college-presidents-want-lower-drinking-age/84123/


College Presidents Want Lower Drinking Age
By JUSTIN POPE, Associated Press | August 19, 2008


College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth, and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age to 18 from 21, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.

"This is a law that is routinely evaded," a former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization, John McCardell, said. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."

Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon, and Morehouse...

[avatar4321]

not sure its ever going to happen. Government can make money off more citations with a higher age.

[DragonStryk72]

I am in complete agreement with the deans here. The 21 year old drinking age just makes absolutely no sense.

[Abbey Marie]

I disagree with the premise here. In my experience, kids who want to will binge drink whatever the drinking age. If we are going to lower the age, lets do it for a real reason, not some trumped up excuse just to make people feel better about it.

[Kathianne]

I disagree with the premise here. In my experience, kids who want to will binge drink whatever the drinking age. If we are going to lower the age, lets do it for a real reason, not some trumped up excuse just to make people feel better about it.

I guess my take is most kids drink before 18, not talking about a 'sip' during the holidays. In college, the weekends tend to be bingeing. Make it legal and hold them to adult standards.

It used to be that drinking and driving were accepted behaviors, no more for those aware of DUI's. My guess is a lowering of consumption.

[avatar4321]

I disagree with the preimise behind it as well. People are paying how much for colleges? And these Colleges have some sort of standards for the students they are taking money from?

[Hobbit]

The reason the drinking age went up to 21 is because when it was 18, the binge drinking started at 15. In any case, I could care less. I don't drink, I'm well over 21, and I know how to avoid the college numbskull get togethers.

[Abbey Marie]

The reason the drinking age went up to 21 is because when it was 18, the binge drinking started at 15. In any case, I could care less. I don't drink, I'm well over 21, and I know how to avoid the college numbskull get togethers.

I hope my daughter will be as smart as you when she's a freshman next year. Numbskulls is an apt description.

[Kathianne]

I hope my daughter will be as smart as you when she's a freshman next year. Numbskulls is an apt description.

I hope she is too. However, most of us probably fall short. I'm well aware of my own kids falling short, with added pressure from peers, including sororities/fraternities. Some do, most don't. If legal, both the responsibility and repercussions fall upon the individual, not the institution or parents. 18 should be old enough.

[DragonStryk72]

The problem isn't the booze, it's our glorification and our demonizing of it. Think about it, how often do you think about binging on soda, sweet tea, or milk? For some reason, our country seems to have this idea that if only people are more aware of alcohol, then we will stop, same thing as cigarettes. Is there anyone here who doesn't know the effects of alcohol or cigarettes? The best we can do is educate our own kids, and hope that we've taught them to be responsible, and yes, that even includes teaching them to drink responsibly.

[5stringJeff]

The problem isn't the booze, it's our glorification and our demonizing of it. Think about it, how often do you think about binging on soda, sweet tea, or milk? For some reason, our country seems to have this idea that if only people are more aware of alcohol, then we will stop, same thing as cigarettes. Is there anyone here who doesn't know the effects of alcohol or cigarettes? The best we can do is educate our own kids, and hope that we've taught them to be responsible, and yes, that even includes teaching them to drink responsibly.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The current system encourages teachers at the high-school and college level to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that no one ever drinks until they're 21. The drinking age should be lowered to 18, and teens should be taught how to drink responsibly - like adults.

[Abbey Marie]

You can't compare drinking alcohol to soda or milk, for the simple reason that kids enjoy the feeling and lack of inhibition they get from the alcohol. No amount of education or normalizing of drinking will change that fact.

[5stringJeff]

You can't compare drinking alcohol to soda or milk, for the simple reason that kids enjoy the feeling and lack of inhibition they get from the alcohol. No amount of education of normalizing of drinking will change that fact.

Heck, I enjoy the feeling and lack of inhibition that I get from drinking alcohol, and I'm 32. The difference is, I know how to handle alcohol - a lesson I had to learn from experience (read: times that I've thrown up, been hung over, etc. from drinking too much). Teens today aren't taught how to handle alcohol. That should change, especially in a culture like ours where social drinking is accepted as normal behavior.