MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- The college presidents said they wanted a national debate on the 21-year-old drinking age. They got it.

 

For years, former Middlebury College President John McCardell has been criticizing the law, saying it only encourages binge drinking and pushes alcohol into the shadows.

 

But then McCardell quietly enlisted about 100 college presidents in a campaign calling for the drinking age to be reconsidered. After The Associated Press reported on the effort this week, the issue erupted into the biggest discussion on the subject in years - in blogs, over e-mail, in newspaper editorials and around office water coolers.

 

College presidents usually avoid contentious topics because alienating alumni and politicians poses big risks and offers few rewards. So it was big news when so many leaders of the nation's best-known institutions signed on to McCardell's "Amethyst Initiative," named for the Greek gemstone said to ward off intoxication.

 

Supporters included presidents of private universities such as Duke, Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins, and public schools including Ohio State and the University of Maryland.

 

"No matter where you stand on this issue, it's impossible to look at what has happened over the last three or four days and say this is a settled question," McCardell said Friday in one of nearly a dozen scheduled media interviews.

 

"It's also impossible to say the public isn't ready to participate in the debate the presidents are calling for."

 

Critics led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving got their view across, too, accusing the presidents of seeking to avoid the unpleasant work of cracking down on campus lawbreakers.

 

MADD marshaled critics, including the acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, who called changing the law "a terrible idea" that would "jeopardize the lives of more teens." On Friday, the International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a statement opposing a lower drinking age.

 

Amid the backlash, two presidents - Robert Franklin of Morehouse College and Kendall Blanchard of Georgia Southwestern State -- withdrew their support.

 

"We welcome an honest discussion and that begins with a clear discussion of the science," MADD CEO Chuck Hurley said. "We are hopeful that that will be the focus going forward."

 

But at least 20 presidents have added their names this week, including the presidents of Montclair State in New Jersey and the University of Massachusetts system, bringing the total to at least 123.

 

"We're not burying our head and trying to hide behind laws," said the Rev. Paul Locatelli, president of Santa Clara University in California, who meets personally with every student written up for alcohol infractions. "We're trying to say, 'What is the best way to approach this issue?"'

 

Whether the debate will lead anywhere is unclear. Opinion polls suggest most Americans support enforcing current drinking laws.

 

In a MADD press release, Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said he would not consider any effort to repeal or weaken "this lifesaving law."

 

Efforts in states including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Vermont to relax the drinking age have been rebuffed. A 1984 federal law limits a state's access to federal highway funds if it sets a drinking age lower than 21.

 

But that law is up for reauthorization next year. McCardell wants it changed so states can decide for themselves the best drinking age, without fear of losing federal money. He hopes the drinking age will become an issue in the fall election campaign.

 

A number of newspaper editorials this week criticized the presidents, calling enforcement a better answer.

 

The Indianapolis Star questioned "whether the style of behavior demonstrated by a university president or a professor at a dinner or reception will be replicated by freshmen let loose at their first Friday night keg party."

 

"Why permit 18-year-olds to vote but not drink?" asked Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman. "Because they have not shown a disproportionate tendency to abuse the franchise, to the peril of innocent bystanders."

 

But other editorial pages, including The Houston Chronicle, were more sympathetic -- at least to the presidents' call for debate, if not to lowering the drinking age.

 

While "it's hard to believe that the current drinking age is to blame, it does limit the ways colleges can respond" to problem drinking, wrote The Los Angeles Times.

 

Against the forces of peer-pressure and marketing, "the only educational message colleges can deliver to students is 'Don't.' It's worth considering ways to teach young people how to drink responsibly -- for example, by letting states create limited, provisional rights."

 

Predictably, student newspapers were also sympathetic, like the Duke Chronicle, which praised President Richard Brodhead for signing on.

 

"We'd even raise a glass to him -- that is, if we could," the Chronicle editors wrote.

 

http://www.wftv.com/education/17270221/detail.html

I don't know why the government thinks it can control substances to begin with. There's nothing in the Constitution about that.

yeah. :confused:

God bless GB's 18 drinking age

I don't know why the government thinks it can control substances to begin with. There's nothing in the Constitution about that.

 

Well, for the sake of another view...should a 12 year old be allowed able to walk into a store and walk out with a jug of vodka?

Well, for the sake of another view...should a 12 year old be allowed able to walk into a store and walk out with a jug of vodka?

 

Of course. It's the parent's responsibility to make sure their child isn't getting into that stuff, not the shopkeeper's. If the shopkeeper decides he'd like to discriminate against his customers based on their age, that's his business - it will affect his bottom line (tangible income) as well as his opinion of himself (psychic income).

 

A 12 year old can also buy poison to kill insects, drain cleaner, and all sorts of other caustic chemicals. He can even find some naturally-occurring chemicals to intoxicate himself with. But God, in his benevolence, was wise to allow humanity access to a whole slew of dangerous things that can be harnessed for the purpose of committing good. ;)

i think it should be 18 cause i really dont get why its 21....i mean they say when ur 18 ur an adult and u can vote and u have to start to pay things and what not...but ur not old enough to drink i mean what kind of bullshit is that.......18 is an adult so just like any other adult ages 21 to whatever should be able to drink and buy beer or whatever...i just dont get it!

It's 19 here. I think that's a good age. At 18 there's still enough immaturity to wind up with some of the binge-drinking problems Britain is having. At 21 since college kids can't get into bars they go out in the woods and drink themselves stupid because there's nothing to encourage responsible drinking.

 

At 19, they've had a little bit of time in the real world before they're unleashed in the liquor store, but they can go have an evening out, have a couple of drinks, and make it home in one piece because they were in an environment where responsible drinking can take place.

Yeah, there's still lots of problems and there always will be as long as kids that age are away at school together. But at least with it legal you can teach, guide and limit rather that just saying it's banned.

Of course. It's the parent's responsibility to make sure their child isn't getting into that stuff, not the shopkeeper's. If the shopkeeper decides he'd like to discriminate against his customers based on their age, that's his business - it will affect his bottom line (tangible income) as well as his opinion of himself (psychic income).

 

A 12 year old can also buy poison to kill insects, drain cleaner, and all sorts of other caustic chemicals. He can even find some naturally-occurring chemicals to intoxicate himself with. But God, in his benevolence, was wise to allow humanity access to a whole slew of dangerous things that can be harnessed for the purpose of committing good. ;)

 

There are a lot of terrible parents out there, even the best of parents can only control a child so long into their teen years. and I say something like alcohol is too dangerous a substance to rely on the rationality of a 13/14 year old. heck, In the states you can drive at 15. Most kids are idiots at these ages, which is why it is perfectly reasonably to have laws keeping them these substances until a point of maturity where they can't blame their parents for drinking themselves to death.

I don't believe marijuana should remain illegal, but some substances simply shouldn't be made available to adolescents...and it's far more realistic that some kids are gonna guzzle down a jack daniels than drain-o...granted, kids have done that...some even enjoy choking themselves, but just because people will never stop finding ways of hurting themselves, doesn't mean we shouldn't crack down on the most controllable means.

Well, for the sake of another view...should a 12 year old be allowed able to walk into a store and walk out with a jug of vodka?

 

Parents control your kids, its that simple.

I never understood why 21.It's a bit ridiculous.I mean in the US you can drive at 16 but not drink at 21??I don't trust a kid in a car at 16.I think 18 is a good drinking age...although most people start earlier...well I did.

You can kill a man in America at 18 (in the army), but you can't drink.

 

In theory you can drink legally at 14 in this country, you just need to be eating at the time

i go off and on about this subject. i think if they do change it back to 18, it would go absolutely CRAZY for a while with all the jerks overdoing it because it's easier to get and they can't get into trouble, but then i think that the entire thing would calm down a bit, perhaps like it is in europe. not that binge drinking and misuse doesn't happen there, of course, but to me it seems MUCH worse over here, especially among college students.

 

i don't drink not because i'm against alcohol, but because i see it so horribly misused here on this campus every weekend and i don't want anything to do with that disgusting culture. i feel like the binge drinking is so bad because it IS illegal and people need something to "rebel"with at this age (:rolleyes:), so they pick that. if it was legal, the rebellion aspect might not be there as much, so in the long run it might change slightly. but i think for it to get better, it would take ages, like 50 years for that huge college-drinking culture to die down to a more acceptable level.

 

as it stands, my uni has come out against changing the drinking age. i don't know how i feel about that, but because i'm in the boonies of PA, there's not much else to do besides drink anyway, so i feel like it's always going to be a bit of a problem in places like this.

i don't drink not because i'm against alcohol, but because i see it so horribly misused here on this campus every weekend and i don't want anything to do with that disgusting culture.

 

I love this attitude. And you make a good point about there being a drinking culture. Generally it revolves around sex, because alcohol makes your inhibitions wane and people look better. Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to get rid of it. Universities should bear much of the blame, since they're basically set up to be a consequence-free environment for young people to experiment in.

I just never understood alcohol. When my siblings come home they always "pretend" to try to get me drunk, Giving me beers and sips of wine whenever my parents aren't around. I've never actually been drunk...my policy is, unless it's medicine, never drink anything I don't like the taste of. I like some white wine in moderation, but I hate the taste of beer, vodka, rum, margaritas, all that jazz. Even if it were free I much rather have a soda or something. Which is why I got a little annoyed at my sister's wedding when my other sister Ashley was slipping rum into my coke's.

It's a depressing thought to think that millions of people regularly drink something that tastes horrible just to alter their minds for a few hours or to fit in. Really dissapointing actually because beer looks so awesome in the commercials you see growing up, and then you finally taste it :uneasy: and think "this is beer?"

^haha, exactly. i think 95% of it all tastes like shit on top of it all. i always thought beer would taste like apple juice because that's what it looks like, but...eww. there's some drinks made with vodka that i can stand, but i don't want to slip into anything resembling the vast majority of people on most college and university campuses. it makes me an outcast on weekends, but i don't care.

 

i don't think anything will ever fix the problem, but i do wonder if making the drinking age 18 would eventually make any slight difference. ultimately, i think it's up to the parents. i was basically allowed to do whatever i wanted growing up, including drink alcohol for my friends, so it never really held this negative stigma for me that made it enticing, and i had mildly experimented and figured out my boundaries by the time that most other people were just realizing how much their parents didn't want them to drink EVER until they were 21, which made them want to try it all the more. i think parents need to wise up about how to treat it to really solve the problem, so no matter the age, kids are more ready to deal with it in a mature way.

^haha, exactly. i think 95% of it all tastes like shit on top of it all. i always thought beer would taste like apple juice because that's what it looks like, but...eww. there's some drinks made with vodka that i can stand, but i don't want to slip into anything resembling the vast majority of people on most college and university campuses. it makes me an outcast on weekends, but i don't care.

 

i don't think anything will ever fix the problem, but i do wonder if making the drinking age 18 would eventually make any slight difference. ultimately, i think it's up to the parents. i was basically allowed to do whatever i wanted growing up, including drink alcohol for my friends, so it never really held this negative stigma for me that made it enticing, and i had mildly experimented and figured out my boundaries by the time that most other people were just realizing how much their parents didn't want them to drink EVER until they were 21, which made them want to try it all the more. i think parents need to wise up about how to treat it to really solve the problem, so no matter the age, kids are more ready to deal with it in a mature way.

 

Yeah, the one thing I did like was a white russian Ashley made for me a long time back (I'm making her out to be a real drunky lol, she isn't), but alcohol never contributes to the taste of a drink.

 

and I also agree that strict prohibition only entices the curiosity of a kid. when I was a very young my parents would let me taste their wine if I was curious, naturally it tasted bad, so I stayed away from it. In fact there's a famous story that, when I was 5, I spat out my sip of red wine during communion and shouted "eww!!YUCKY JUICE!"

 

As far as parents go the key is the to catch the shade of grey between complete freedom and prohibition.

straight whiskey for myself. Can never go wrong with beer(unless its light beer). Jagermeister is amazing to. anyways im only 17 and to lower the age to 18 i would love of course, but its not up to me. some people dont mind. me and my friend were sitting behind a guy that bought us some beer at the Chicago concert, but really expensive for shit. like 7 bucks. so i only had 5.