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What?
Lower the Drinking Age
NO WAY!
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And here are our reasons . . .
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A year old campaign by John McCardell, former President of Middlebury College, Vermont, to lower the legal drinking age
from 21 to 18 has gained the support of over 100 university presidents as reported by the Associated Press,
August 18, 2008. McCardell is the founder of
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Choose Responsibility. This effort to engage in discussion to
lower the drinking age is called the Amethyst Initiative .
While some college presidents recognize that alcohol is a problem at their schools and underage drinking is prevalent, we suggest that their consideration of lowering the drinking age is not the answer to binge drinking. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union strongly disagrees with these academics and here’s why!
- The brain is not fully developed until the age of 21 or even to the age of 25. Brain development in adolescence and into young adulthood can be impaired by heavy alcohol use. The hippocampus is responsible for learning and remembering. The hippocampus has been found to be 10 percent smaller in teens who abused alcohol than those of teens who did not abuse alcohol. [Dr. John Nelson, former President, AMA]
- Each year approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking including about 1,000 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, and hundreds from injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings.[National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism]
- If the legal age becomes 18 (the age of some high school seniors) that means that 16, 17 and perhaps 15 year olds who do not have friends over 21 to buy alcohol, would probably be more able to obtain it. When the legal drinking age was 18 (before 1984) binge drinking rates among 12th graders were 41%; today they are 21%. (David Rosenbloom, Join Together.)
- People will say that 18 year olds can vote, marry, and go to war so why not drink? Perhaps the age to marry and go to war should be raised to 21 instead of the reverse. As to voting, many young people are informed and when they are sober, they are as intelligent about voting as their older counterparts.
- In most countries with lower drinking ages, intoxication is much more common among young people than in the United States. New Zealand experienced a raise in alcohol-relate traffic crashes after they lowered its drinking age from 20-18. A leading police official in Great Britain is calling for the drinking age to be raised to 21 from 18.
So with alcohol use the No. 1 health and safety problem on every college campus, what are some solutions to the problem?
Availability of alcohol needs to be addressed. Enforcement of existing laws needs to be the primary focus. It Works: States that punish underage drinkers for using fake ID’s had 14 percent fewer teen drunk-driving deaths than states without such laws.
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Alcohol ads on NCAA games, encourage drinking. More pressure needs to be given to the NCAA to stop those ads. (NCAA rejected pleas from college presidents and other organizations in 2008 to stop alcoholic advertisements.)
The University of Wisconsin not only confronts students about underage drinking reports from campus police but also contacts offender’s parents when their college-age kids are caught drunk in public places. They are calling on parents to ask them to be partners and work to encourage the student make better choices. University administrators want the students to know there are consequences, but the goal isn’t to be harsh and punitive - it is to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Ask the legislators to raise alcohol taxes. The alcohol tax revenue of 8.9 billion dollars does not come close to the public health and safety costs of alcohol that amount to 184 BILLION dollars per year including 62 BILLION per year cost of underage drinking alone. If the price of alcohol is increased, consumption would go down.
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Work to change society’s view of alcohol in the same manner as it currently views the usage of tobacco. Surely the number of deaths saved as a result of having the drinking age at 21 is worthy of keeping it at that age.
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Let us reject John McCardell’s Amethyst Initiative and instead work to reduce alcohol consumption at any age and encourage abstinence. Letters of thanks to those presidents that have not signed this statement are encouraged. Letters urging those presidents who have signed to reconsider and have their name removed are appropriate.
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The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism, after a three-year study has assembled some startling statistics with respect to college drinking.
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Here is a summary as published on their website College Drinking - Changing the Culture. They say,
" . . . recently published data compiled below illustrate that each year the consequences of college drinking are more significant, more destructive, and more costly than many Americans realize."
We couldn't agree more after reviewing these staggering statistics:
- Death: 1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.
- Injury: 500,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol.
- Assault: More than 600,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.
- Sexual Abuse: More than 70,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.
- Unsafe Sex: 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 have unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex.
- Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.
- Health Problems/Suicide Attempts: More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use.
- Drunk Driving: 2.1 million students between the ages of 18 and 24 report driving under the influence of alcohol last year.
- Vandalism: About 11 percent of college students report that they have damaged property while under the influence of alcohol.
- Property Damage: More than 25 percent of administrators from schools with relatively low drinking levels and over 50 percent from schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a "moderate" or "major" problem with alcohol-related property damage.
- Police Involvement: About 5 percent of 4-year college students are involved with the police or campus security as a result of their drinking. An estimated 110,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are arrested for an alcohol-related violation such as public drunkenness or driving under the influence.
- Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking.
Some Helpful Links . . .
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In the News . . .
Middlebury, VT - September 5 - by John Flowers, Addison County Independent.
Former Middlebury College President John McCardell always knew his
effort to stimulate conversation on lowering the drinking age back to
18 would generate some controversy. He’s heard it from various
politicians and citizens’ groups from throughout the country.
But McCardell was admittedly a little surprised last week to receive a
dubious citation from the oldest continuing non-sectarian women’s
organization in the world. McCardell learned on Friday that the
national Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) had bestowed its
first annual “Millstone Award” on the Amethyst Initiative, an effort
he has spearheaded to promote debate among college and university
leaders about the current 21-year-old drinking age.
Click on image to enlarge
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The WCTU created the Millstone Award to “bring awareness to a person,
organization or governmental body that creates conditions or uses
their position of influence to promote unhealthy, illegal or immoral
behavior that we believe places children at risk,” according to Bunny
S. Galladora, one of three WCTU delegates
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who hand-delivered the “award” to McCardell on Friday, Sept. 5.
It’s an award based on scriptural verse (Luke 17:1-2 NIV) that reads,
“Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that
person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown
into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to
cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves.”
Galladora, during a phone interview, said the WCTU chose the Amethyst
Initiative from among several potential nationwide nominees, including
the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council. That council, according to
Galladora, recently passed a non-discrimination law that allows
transsexual men access to women’s locker rooms and restrooms.
“There’s a group there collecting signatures on a petition to get that
overturned,” Galladora said.
The WCTU also considered bestowing the Millstone Award on groups
responsible for placing pornography on the Internet, but “when (the
Amethyst Initiative) came up, we just felt hands-down this is the one
we should go with.”
A desire to fight alcohol abuse was, after all, the catalyst for the
women who established the WCTU during the 1870s.
“In many towns in Ohio and New York in the fall of 1873 women
concerned about the destructive power of alcohol met in churches to
pray and then marched to the saloons to ask the owners to close their
establishments,” reads a history excerpt from the WCTU Web site. “They
met with success, but it was only temporary, so by the next summer the
women concluded that they must become organized nationally. This led
to the founding of the national Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.”
In its critique of the Amethyst Initiative, the group points to
statistics from the 2005 Annual Review of Public Health indicating
alcohol was a contributing factor in the accidental deaths of 1,717
college students. WCTU officials further submit that alcohol use can
lead to irresponsible sexual behavior.
“We do not work extra hours, take second jobs, scrimp and save, or
mortgage our homes to send our children to college to learn to drink
alcohol,” said Galladora, a retired deputy sheriff from Montgomery
County, Md.
McCardell — founder of the group Choose Responsibility — believes the
current drinking age may in fact promote alcohol abuse by prompting
younger college students to go off-campus to drink in an irresponsible
manner.
McCardell welcomed the WCTU members into his office, where they had,
by all accounts, a respectful discussion about their differences. The
women had been attending the organiza tion’s annual convention held
last week in Burlington.
Galladora said it was coincidental that the award recipient happened
to be located in the same state as the convention.
I certainly have respected for a very long time the work this historic
organization has done,” said McCardell, adding the meeting should be
seen as a model of how two groups with opposing views about the
drinking age can discuss the issue civilly.
“I give them credit for their concern and their courage,” McCardell
said. “They came into the lion’s den.”
As an historian, McCardell was also thrilled to receive from Galladora
an antique white-ribbon pin, the symbol of the WCTU.
“I thought it was very touching, along with the Millstone Award, that
they would proffer that ribbon,” he said.
The WCTU is not alone in opposing the Amethyst Initiative. Here's a sampling of
recent editorials and articles:
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Perils of a Lower Drinking Age
Chicago Tribune August 25, 2008
Life is full of surprises, and some 100 college presidents think they have stumbled on one. They think there is too much problem drinking on campus - no surprise there - and suggest we might solve the problem by changing the drinking age. They don't propose raising it to 25. They want to lower it to 18.
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A Lower Drinking Age Will Bring Bingeing Boom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution August 25, 2008
Combating binge drinking on colleges by lowering the drinking age seems akin to decreasing speeding by raising the speed limit.
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Underage Drinking Not a Rite of Passage; Let's Fight It
Great Falls Tribune August 22, 2008
Armed with sobering alcohol usage statistics, Acting U.S. Surgeon General Steven Galson made an appeal this week in Montana.
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2 Withdraw From Petition to Rethink Drinking Age
New York Times August 22, 2008
Two college presidents, both in Georgia, have withdrawn their names from a petition to reconsider the legal drinking age after it drew blistering criticism this week from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, safety experts, transportation officials and politicians.
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Binge drinking challenge Our view: The legal drinking age of 21 should remain
Baltimore Sun August 21, 2008
A number or respected academic leaders in Maryland believe the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18, to help confront what they describe as a hidden crisis in binge drinking among students. But they offer no convincing evidence that lowering the drinking age would reduce excessive alcohol use by college students.
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Drinking-age proposal draws attacks Health, safety groups say 21 is a success
Baltimore Sun August 20, 2008
Health, safety and transportation advocates denounced Tuesday a proposal by more than 100 university administrators to reconsider the legal drinking age of 21 -- contending that any reduction would lead to thousands of additional drunken-driving deaths and other harm to the public health.
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HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
The WCTU has prepared a brochure,"This Amethyst is No Gem," available in Adobe PDF.
To get your copy - CLICK HERE. To download and print the insert for the brochure - CLICK HERE. NOTE: This is a four-fold brochure and contains the names of all the college and university presidents who support the Amethyst Initiative as of August 18, 2008. Requires 8-1/2 X 14 paper to print properly.
The Brochure & Insert is available from Signal Press
Order A-301/302:
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