http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/18/AR2007041802279.html">Drinking Age Paradox by George Will
Public policy often illustrates the law of unintended consequences. Society's complexity -- multiple variables with myriad connections -- often causes the consequences of a policy to be contrary to, and larger than, the intended ones. So, when assessing government actions, one should be receptive to counterintuitive ideas. One such is John McCardell's theory that a way to lower the incidence of illness, mayhem and death from alcohol abuse by young people is to lower the drinking age.
McCardell, 57, president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont and a professor of history there, says alcohol is and always will be "a reality in the lives of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds." Studies indicate that the number of college students who drink is slightly smaller than it was 10 years ago, largely because of increased interest in healthful living. But in the majority who choose to drink, there have been increases of "binge drinking" and other excesses. Hospitalizations of 18- to 20-year-olds for alcohol poisoning have risen in those 10 years.
This, McCardell believes, is partly because the drinking age of 21 has moved drinking to settings away from parental instruction and supervision. Among college students, drinking has gone "off campus and underground," increasing risks while decreasing institutions' abilities to manage the risks.
The problem with drinking laws and DUI laws is that despite their characterization by the media as way tougher these days than in the past, they really are NOT all that tough. Some years back, one paper I read described new DUI laws in my state as "Draconian". No, road-side execution of a person found to be drunk at the scene of an accident would be Draconian, a mandatory 10-day jail sentence is NOT. But, I digress.
Teens get their hands on alcohol due to careless or conspiring adults. The clerk at the store knows the ID is fake, but sells to them anyway. The parent who knows the kids are pilfering their booze stocks, but thinks, "Kids will be kids" and/or "Well, I drank at his/her age and I turned out perfectly fine." The older college student who buys for his younger buddies. These people are seldom punished in any meaningful manner, so their is little incentive for them to stop.
You show me a law that sends an adult procurer to prison for five years, no parole; a law that REVOKES ABC licenses for five years on the first offense, and I will show you a law that reduces illegal drinking.
Colleges have also abdicated their responsibility by failing to severely punish students caught drinking, especially when that drinking has led to things like arson, vandalism, assault, rape and rioting. Keep it quiet is usually the rule of the day.
With that said, although I do not drink (and never have), I am not puritanical about the issue. I believe that the various ages of consent set by state and federal governments are absurd. This leads to variety of ages at which you can have sex, get married, smoke, drink, drive, vote and enlist in the military. Why are you considered mature enough to handle a highly addictive drug like nicotine and 18, but not alcohol until you are 21? Why are you mature to maneuver over a ton of metal filled with highly explosive fuel within feet of pedestrians at 16, but not mature enough to handle a 15 ounce firearm until you are 18, or purchase one unless you are 21? (Unless you are buying it from some one over the Internet, in which case you only need to be old enough to know how to use Mommy's credit card.)
I suggest we establish one age for ALL these activities once and for all.
That age, in my opinion, should be the age which the state may try you as an adult. (which is some states means you could drink, drive, smoke, etcetera, at age 12). If I can send you to death row at 15, then you should be able to drink at 15. If you can serve hard time at 17, you should be able to vote at 17. Anything else is not only unfair, but stupid.
Any age defining adulthood below 22 is arbitrary and usually based on custom or tradition. 22, in my opinion is when you should be considered an adult since it is the age at which you would normally would graduate from college. High School doesn't cut it, as any viewing of a
Girls Gone Wild video proves.
Even 22 is a bit on the young side, but at least it has some rational justification. In the end, any age at which you can be condemned to death or serve hard time should be the universal age of adulthood.
http://www.thoughtcrimes.org/s9/index.php?/archives/1894-Of-drinking-laws-and-legal-ages.html
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