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Decreasing drinking age fails to solve problems

Aug. 23, 2008

Like any other beginning, the start of a new school year is reason to celebrate for college students. Back-to-school parties have almost become a staple occasion of college life, and for many, it's another excuse to drink.

Students don't view gluttony as a sin, at least when it involves alcohol.

By playing beer pong, doing keg stands and taking shots, students are testing their alcohol limits and causing great concern for college officials.

The unease caused by binge drinking has led more than 100 presidents and chancellors from colleges and universities across the nation to sign a public statement known as the Amethyst Initiative, which calls upon elected officials to reconsider the drinking age.

The history of the current drinking age started in 1984 when Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which gave states that comply with the 21 year-old age limit full funding for federal highways. States that did not comply got 10 percent less.

The current drinking age is ineffective, according to the Amethyst Initiative Web site's statement.

Choose Responsibility, the organization responsible for creating the Amethyst Initiative project, attributed the legal drinking age with increasing binge drinking in 18-20 year-olds. Basically, underage students can't freely drink, so when they get the chance, they binge.

The organization also credited the legal drinking age for making it harder to regulate drinking among young adults who instead of drinking in the light now drink in the shadow.

One suggestion from the Amethyst Initiative is to remove the 10 percent highway fund incentive, which would then allow states to lower the drinking age for 18-20 year-olds but still treating them as a special group who are required to take an alcohol education course in addition to meeting other standards before receiving a permit or license to buy alcohol.

Another suggestion included lowering the alcohol content in beer for the less than 21 age group.

Though you have to give university leaders credit for opening up discussion about the binge-drinking problem facing many college students, it hard to really say if lowering the drinking age will solve alcohol woes.

Would lowering the drinking age really decrease drinking among students or would it condone it?

Students who wouldn't necessarily drink because they aren't 21 would have permission to do so, and it's perfectly legal.

At least with the legal drinking age being 21, underage students have a reason to refuse a drink. They are aware of the consequences of breaking the law if they get caught.

I'm not saying that 21 is the perfect number because if it was then we wouldn't be having this discussion. Not everyone waits until they're 21 to have their first drink. That's a reality.

But does this mean that we should make it easier for students to purchase and consume alcohol if the problem that we're worried about is excess consumption?

Lynn Ngo is a senior journalism major from Anahuac and the opinion editor for The Baylor Lariat.

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