Point-Counterpoint: Lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18

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By Eric Bradner, Travis Braun, September 11, 2008

Point-Counterpoint is a weekly feature by Travis Braun and Eric Bradner. They'll discuss a hot topic from opposing sides.

PRO: By Travis Braun

I don't drink. I don't drink anything with caffeine, carbonation and – yes – alcohol. I’ve tried them all and, no thank you, it’s not for me. So my support for a recent movement to lower the drinking age to 18 does not stem from a desire to patronize Jefferson Street Lounge. It stems from my desire for the right to do so.

The Associated Press reported in Aug. that college presidents from about 100 of the nation’s best-known universities were calling for lawmakers to lower the age limit to 18. The movement, called the Amethyst Initiative, started gathering support more than a year ago with the philosophy that an age-limit of 21 inspires binge drinking by those who are under aged.

Because, let’s face it, people under aged are, increasingly, under the influence. The Associated Press found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 to 2005. And as much as we deny it, that under-aged drinking happens just as much here at Franklin as it does at any college or university.

While I agree with the Amethyst Initiative, I don’t think the drinking age should be lowered. It should be abolished. According to the International Center for Alcohol Policies, countries as diverse as Hong Kong, Poland and Israel allow the parents – not the politicians – to decide when their children are prepared to drink. Are we Americans just too irresponsible to monitor ourselves and our youth? Are we too spoiled to limit ourselves, instead handing that task to Uncle Sam?

But if you laugh off the notion of no drinking age for fear of a sixth grader getting hold of a bottle of Jack Daniels, at least consider loosening the law like the supporters of the Amethyst Initiative. Of the 65 countries that ICAP studied in 2002, the United States was the only nation mandating the age of 21 to both purchase and consume alcohol.

A drinking limit of 18 is the precedent around the world. And why shouldn’t it be? That’s when we become adults and are given the responsibility of college or a job, or both. But trust us with all the responsibilities of adults, and let us prove that we’re mature enough to handle them.

CON: By Eric Bradner

Yes, our 18th year is when we become adults. It's when we go to college, or join the military, or take on a full-time job. I can't make a rational argument against couple well-deserved drinks at the end of a long day in the library or at the factory.

But most of us celebrate our 18th birthdays when we're seniors in high school. Listen, there's no doubt college students ought to be allowed to drink responsibly. But if the legal age is 18, the wrong kind of seniors are buying booze for the wrong kind of freshmen.

My colleague asks if we're too irresponsible, too spoiled, to handle ourselves and to watch over our youth. I wonder how a parent's watchful eye will protect a 16-year-old high school sophomore, newly-minted license in tote, who drove to a party and had a couple more than a couple drinks cause everybody else was, too.

Like I said: Of course all college students should have the right to drink responsibly. The fact that a college sophomore has to down the entire case of beer his junior buddy bought him in one night because if he doesn't, he might get caught, is as dangerous as it is absurd.

Forgive the cliche, but let's not paint too broad a stroke. So you think college-aged students should be allowed to drink responsibly -- so do I. So let's find another way to afford college freshmen and sophomores the right to blow some cash on a nasty handle of McCormick's.

Franklin College is a private school with private security. That means when our RAs or our security officers catch you drinking underage on campus, the college is completely within its rights to set lesser penalties than city police -- and it does. Other private schools can follow suit. Local police and prosecutors at State U. have the discretion to do the same.

A lower drinking age all around is easy. It takes the burden of dealing with underaged drinking off the people who have the power and the bully pulpit to really do something about it: College presidents.

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