Beer in the News - Underage Drinking Edition
I've been meaning to post on this since I read about it earlier in the week. 100 college presidents apparently signed a letter asking lawmakers to lower the drinking age to 18. Their point, and one I believe, is that a lower drinking age will help 18 year olds learn to drink more responsibly.
Let's face it, kids are going to drink. Would you rather them drinking in a park which entails drinking as much as they can of high alcohol products in a short time. After that they get in their cars and try to drive to wherever they're going before the booze takes effect. Wow, that sounds safe.
We have a choice, either have 18 year olds drinking in the park or 18 year olds drinking in bars. While I don't really want to go to a bar with a bunch of 18 year olds, I find it preferable to the alternative.
Katherine Mangu-Ward makes a larger point that I wholeheartedly believe in:
If you're interested in more arguments for lowering the drinking age to 18 visit the Amethyst Initiative.
Holmgren, who saw saw firsthand the dangers of the college drinking culture, says she sees the logic in the proposal.
"You finally get your independence and you go crazy," said Holmgren, who says her drinking moderated when she became legal. "If you're allowed to drink whenever, it demystifies the whole thing."
The so-called Amethyst Initiative has refocused the debate on what parents, law enforcement, colleges and even the students themselves are calling a binge drinking epidemic that needs to be fixed.
"All the data show that by the time they go to college they have already experienced alcohol, so how can anyone say the law is working?" McCardell asked.
McCardell says he has received numerous letters after going public with the initiative showing many "parents are in our camp."
Let's face it, kids are going to drink. Would you rather them drinking in a park which entails drinking as much as they can of high alcohol products in a short time. After that they get in their cars and try to drive to wherever they're going before the booze takes effect. Wow, that sounds safe.
We have a choice, either have 18 year olds drinking in the park or 18 year olds drinking in bars. While I don't really want to go to a bar with a bunch of 18 year olds, I find it preferable to the alternative.
Katherine Mangu-Ward makes a larger point that I wholeheartedly believe in:
I'm especially keen on this point about eroding respect for the law. One of the first things that many teenagers do to prepare for college is get a fake ID. Congrats highway fund "incentive," you've turned us all into scofflaws before we even get started on adulthood.
If you're interested in more arguments for lowering the drinking age to 18 visit the Amethyst Initiative.
