College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.
"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory." - Associated Press
The age definitely needs to be lowered. According to Cam Brown, our American culture expert living in Germany, kids in Europe (where the drinking age is under 18) know how to drink. They know about moderation. Since society has pretty much determined that alcohol is fine for teenagers, there is no need for binges.
You can't end the entire drug war - which alcohol plays a part in - all at once. Start with treating weed like alcohol, with the current age, 21. Then we'll see about lowering that age.
ReplyDeleteMake weed 18 as well. Our formative years are from age 18-25. No difference really between 18 and 21.
ReplyDelete18? I'd love to see the age eventually reach 16. Americans can be just as responsible as other nations - right?
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