Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Editorial: A sober talk about the drinking age
Higher education leaders hope America is mature enough to reconsider the drinking age.
From the RoundTable blog
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In 1984, anti-alcohol activists persuaded America to raise the drinking age. Now, a coalition of about 100 university presidents questions that policy. America would benefit from the frank, sober discussion of the issue those educational leaders urge.
The 1984 law did not directly raise states' drinking ages; it just tied federal highway funds to doing so. No state could afford to give up that assistance.
From a strictly utilitarian perspective, the increase has had mixed results.
Twenty-year-olds still drink alcohol. So do 19-year-olds, 18-year-olds and even younger people. They know it is illegal, but that does not stop them. They use fake IDs, older friends and negligent shopkeepers to acquire their booze.
The university presidents point out that the mystique of illicit activity and the necessity that it takes place behind closed doors are dangerous. If a college sophomore gets drunk at a bar, responsible servers will cut him off. When it happens in a dorm room or fraternity house, excess can be deadly.
Groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving observe that there are fewer driving deaths because of the law. Their numbers are right, but their reasoning is not. There would be even fewer deaths if the nation banned alcohol entirely, but America has witnessed the failure of prohibition.
They also argue colleges should focus on education and anti-hazing policies instead of advocating a lower drinking age.
It is not an either-or situation. Those could and should go hand-in-hand with legal consumption at 18 years old.
MADD and its allies display little interest in a rational conversation. They resort to hyperbole and went so far as to caution parents not to let their children attend the presidents' schools because the drinking age would not be enforced there. Their goals are noble, their methods less so.
America trusts its 18-year-olds to make the most serious decisions any adult can make. They may enlist in the military, vote for president, serve on a jury and get married. They do not need their parents' permission. Legally they are adults, except when it comes to alcohol.
The maturity difference between the average 18-year-old and the average 21-year-old is small. If both can decide the fate of someone accused of murder, both should be able to decide whether to drink a beer.
At the very least America should be mature enough to discuss the possibility calmly.
