On lowering the drinking age

"If I can vote, I should be able to drink a beer." I can't tell you how many times I've heard this as the end-all-be-all argument for a lower drinking age than 21. College students love to use it. And apparently so do college presidents. Have you guys heard of the Amethyst Initiative? 129 college presidents have signed a statement advocating a drinking age of 18. They think it will curb binge drinking amongst college students because a legal age of 21 creates a "culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking.'" A quick aside: Robert Shelton refused to sign.

My question is this: is it really reasonable to say that college students won't binge if they can drink legally?

Short answer: No. Long answer: Hell no.

Students drank heavily before 1984, when states were pushed by the federal government to set a drinking age of 21. Students drink heavily in other countries where they can drink beer at 16. And, of course, students drink heavily in this country when they aren't yet 21. Just lowering the drinking age isn't a magic fix. Some have said college presidents just want to not be responsible for their students breaking the law.

I think the drinking culture that surrounds college doesn't come from a law. It comes from our perception of college. We think just as much about the social side of college as we do the academic side. And for a lot of people, going to college after high school is a way to put off adulthood. I'm not even sure I'm exempt from this part -- my parents paid my whole way through college. The solution to students binge drinking is not changing a law, it's changing our perception of what a university education is about.

Back to the beginning of this post -- if people are responsible enough to vote at 18, why aren't they responsible enough to drink alcohol? Well, are 18 year olds really responsible about voting? Most 18 year olds I know could care less about politics. Those that are into it often regurgitate what their parents or friends say. Maybe 18 year olds shouldn't be allowed to vote either. Or maybe they should have to prove they can handle the responsibilities of adulthood, and when they do we can allow them to vote and drink and have other adult privelages. But simply changing an age isn't a solution, it's a cop-out, an easy way to push a problem into someone else's lap.