John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College who is spearheading efforts to reduce the legal drinking age to 18, appeared on "Colbert Nation" last week. Considering the demographics of his audience, host Stephen Colbert surprisingly doesn't seem to drink the Kool-Aid about students bingeing more than they used to because it's harder for them to buy and consume alcohol in public places like "restaurants and student unions." Right. As if all young people want is the right to order chardonnay with their slices of pizza.
At one point Colbert asks McCardell if his real motive behind the effort isn't to be voted "the coolest college president of all time." We admit we've wondered the same at times but, if nothing else, McCardell seems sincere in his belief that there is a disconnect between our laws and the reality of drinking on colleges campuses. He suggests education and "licensing."
I'm willing to bet that most kids speed a few times a month, and I'm not talking 45 mph in a 40 mph zone. Should we just abolish speeding laws to eliminate the disconnect between our expectations for public safety and reality? (Bear in mind that these kids are licensed and many of them took driver's ed.)
Some marketing mind must have gotten involved in McCardell's movement because it's now promoting itself as Choose Responsibility. It started as the Amethyst Initiative, a co-option of a name from the Greek word for "not drunken" that's relevant to those in recovery but not exactly a rallying cry.
The Choose Responsibility website does contain accurate information on the negative impact of alcohol on the brain. But it attempts to marginalize research that indicates that alcohol abuse has more of an impact on an adolescent's developing brain and ignores statistics that the earlier a person drinks, the more likely he or she will have a problem in the future.
Advocates for an 18-year-old drinking age often point to Europe as an example of what we should be doing in the U.S.. They imply that because the drinking age is lower there, young people learn to drink socially at a younger age and there is little or no problem with binge drinking. That's simple not true.
The most recent European School Project Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs released last week show that 15 and 16 year olds in countries such as Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and several others get drunk more often than kids in the U.S. And in the 12 years that the survey has been taken, a summary of the report states, "heavy episodic drinking shows a small but continuous increase throughout the period." As has happened here.
Here's what I personally know from when the drinking age was 18. 1. I could get into a bar with a fake ID when I was 15 and was only refused service a couple of times. 2. That didn't stop me from bingeing in the woods before a social event, or even a trip to a bar to check out the action. It was not because I couldn't drink at a restaurant. It was, bottom line, cheaper.
I drank more than I should have as a kid. I would have drank more if people around me weren't telling me that I shouldn't. —TF
What are your thoughts about the movement to roll the drinking age back to 18?