The Associated Press reported yesterday that 100 college and university presidents – together in a group they've called the Amethyst Initiative – are urging lawmakers to reduce the legal drinking age from 21 to 18, saying that current laws encourage dangerous binge drinking.
We're talking big schools: Duke, Ohio State, Syracuse. Although it doesn't surprise me that many of the nation's college presidents feel this way, I didn't expect them to publicly lobby for it. Campuses spend a huge amount of time and energy dealing with enforcing alcohol policies, and the college presidents assert that binge drinking causes more harm than legalized drinking would.
Every year at this time – "Back to School" – we get lots of news stories about binge drinking. Millions of parents are dropping off their freshmen on campuses during August, so the stories get lots of readership and get everyone riled up. New students are hitting the booze pretty hard in the first weeks on campus, sexual assaults start racking up, and alcohol violations are through the roof. All of this is closely followed in October by National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, and we all nod in agreement that alcohol abuse on campus is a huge issue.
But this puts a wrinkle in things. There hasn't been serious discussion about reducing the drinking age in a long, long time. Forums and debates on the pro's and con's of lowering the legal drinking age will probably garner interest on the nation's campuses this year, particularly as young veterans begin flooding campuses. Historically, the return of war-time veterans to campuses usually stoke these fires. "If I can face insurgent fire in Fallujah, why can't I legally drink a beer?"
Of course, in the other corner is MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which has a very powerful voice in Washington and is well funded by sponsorships from automakers, insurance companies and oil companies. MADD, more than any other organization in the country, will be on a rampage to damper any Amethyst Initiative impact. They've got a campaign already in place called "Support 21." The organization is pretty ruthless, so expect them to pull out the big guns if necessary. Lawmakers are not very likely to take on MADD if they can help it.
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