College Heads Unite to Debate Drinking Age
The pursuit of an 18-year-old drinking age saw new light today, as more than 100 college presidents called on lawmakers to reconsider the current minimum. The movement is called the Amethyst Initiative, which is named after the gem the ancient Greeks credited for warding off drunkenness. It contends that the "21-year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses."
The group has been quietly gaining ground over the past year, recruiting presidents and chancellors to sign on to its mission of provoking debate about the drinking age, and it now plans to take out newspaper ads over the next few weeks.
Critics of the initiative include Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who accuse the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD even goes as far as warning parents to think about the safety at colleges represented on the list, the Associated Press reports.
Prominent universities on the list include Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Morehouse, Ohio State, Spelman, Syracuse, and Maryland.
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drinking age change ideas
I agree that the drinking age at 21 is not working for teens. I think it is forcing our teens to break the law. A better idea would be to change it to 19 for beer and 21 for liquor. That way high school kids would not be in the same peer group as college kids. By 19 most teens are out of high school and not at the same parties as whose in high school. I think MADD is not right on this. I think all teens have had a drink before 21 and the universities are trying to help our kids. For all the parents of 19 to 20 year olds please reply
MADD has changed
MADD has changed from an organization that raised awreness of drunk driving to an organization dedicated to making alcohol illegal again as it was during prohibition (prompting the founder to leave the organization). It is best to ignore everything they say.
It's a matter of citizenship
If our country is going to agree that an 18 year old is adult enough to enlist in the service, vote in elections, and run for certain public offices, then it is hypocritical to say that same individual is too immature to drink responsibly. Will some of them make bad decisions? Of course. So do 21, 41, and 81 year-olds.
It also makes law enforcement easier. Rather than the current game of "Gotcha" on campuses, police can enforce the public intoxication laws already on the books in most jurisdictions.
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