On Campus: Legal Drinking Age Is Flunking the Reality Test

[leeman]

http://www.wluctv6.com/news/story.aspx?id=177934 .......... here are some responses to the age debate.....

[NewsCopy]

  A group of more than 120 college chancellors and university presidents is igniting a national debate by speaking out against the current legal drinking age.

The Amethyst Initiative, launched in July, gathered leaders in higher education around the idea that the current legal drinking age of 21 is no longer working.

Instead, they say, it is creating a culture of binge drinking on college campuses.

In the initiative's official statement, the current drinking age of 21 is noted as a cause for an increase in off-campus clandestine binge drinking by underage students - drinking that can lead to accidents, alcohol dependency or even death.

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Cody Daigle • cdaigle@theadvertiser.com • August 24, 2008

[Cajunbander]

And just another thing....said Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association. "They are really just punting on the issue and leaving the high school principals to deal with it. Very disappointing."

How about getting parents off their collective arses to be part of the solution. This is a prime example of the bigger picture. Underage drinking is not a problem for high schools or colleges to deal with. It is a matter of parents raising their kids right. If your kid feels they can break the law, then that's on you not the educational facility.

ACTIVE PARENTING!!!

Thank you!!!

I just turned 21 in March, but I've been drinking since I was about 18. Now, before I started classes at UL, my mom sat down with me and basically told me that the choice is mine. She doesn't like me doing it, but there's nothing she can do to stop me. She said that she did her best to teach me to be responsible (which, for being a single mom from the time I was 2 until I was about 13, she did a damn good job), but that ultimately it was up to me now. She also told me that if I ever needed a ride, I could call her, and she'd come get me, without any consequences. I respected her for doing that, and I'll be damned if I didn't leaver her a note, or tell her what was up everytime I went out, so that she wouldn't worry.

Now that I've moved out of her house, and live on my own, I always make sure I have a ride, or if not, I cut myself off or make time to sober up, whatever the case it. I didn't see any difference in myself from when I turned 18, to when I turned 21. The only thing I couldn't do was maybe have a beer at Texas Roadhouse, or buy a beer at games.

People need to be realistic. They need to step up and be good parents. Know that their children are going to drink and let them know about the consequences of the decisions they make. If I had ever gotten in trouble for drinking when I wasn't supposed to, my mom wouldn't have been mad, she would have just been disappointed in me because she knows I know better. I couldn't have done that to her.

My professor put it well this morning. We can't decide when the hell children turn into adults. At 17, you'll be charged as an adult if you commit a crime. You can smoke tobacco, buy Lotto tickets, vote and join the military when you're 18, but you can't drink or gamble? Its ridiculous! The government needs to make up its damn mind!

[NewsCopy]

  More than 120 college chancellors and university presidents are speaking out against the current legal drinking age of 21. They want to drop it to 18, on the premise that the current age limit is not working and is creating a culture of binge drinking on campus. They have joined together under the banner of the Amethyst Initiative to try to lower the legal drinking age.

Theirs is a strange mission. Most studies show that the current drinking age is effective in combating alcohol consumption by young people.

Maureen Downey, writing for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says, "Combating binge drinking on college campuses by lowering the drinking age seems akin to decreasing speeding by raising the speed limit."

UL President Joe Savoie is not part of the Amethyst Initiative. To him, the proposed change "didn't make much sense." He also cited studies that indicate the legal drinking age of 21 has reduced alcohol-related fatalities among young people.

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