Campaign would lower drinking age
Teague Duggan
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: News
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Choose Responsibility is a non-profit organization launched in April, 2007, dedicated to re-opening the public debate surrounding the legal age for drinking alcohol. Initiated by John M. McCardell Jr., who recently stepped down as president of Middlebury College, the program proposes a multi-faceted approach combining education, certification and licensing to enable 18-20 year-olds to consume alcohol and to promote a more responsible attitude toward alcohol nationwide.
The campaign premise is that Legal Age 21, referred to as "prohibition" by the organization, does not work. Choose Responsibility argues that by disenfranchising 18-20 year-olds-who are at the age of legal majority and can enlist, marry, adopt children, smoke and gamble-Legal Age 21 has fostered an unhealthy and irresponsible binge-drinking culture among that demographic, which continues to exacerbate uniquely American alcohol-related problems for citizens of all ages.
The statistics in favor of change are startling: "between 1993 and 2001, 18 to 20 year-olds showed a 56% increase in heavy-drinking episodes; 96% of the alcohol consumed by 15 to 20 year-olds is consumed when the drinker is actively engaged in a period of heavy drinking." The Choose Responsibility website states: "The field of neuroscience tells us that this has devastating consequences for developing brains. Since Legal Age 21, less young people are drinking, but those who choose to drink are drinking more."
Legal Age 21 came into effect on July 17, 1984, when President Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which resulted from legislative efforts to curb the U.S. drunk-driving epidemic. The law denies federal highway funds to states that set a drinking age below 21.
The Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving, founded in 1982, initially recommended 39 steps to deter drunk driving, but as Choose Responsibility's website states, "Exclusive interest in raising the drinking age marginalized the effect of the remaining 38 recommendations, among them suggestions to implement youth education programs, establish a massive public information campaign, and to increase penalties for convicted drunken drivers.
The campaign premise is that Legal Age 21, referred to as "prohibition" by the organization, does not work. Choose Responsibility argues that by disenfranchising 18-20 year-olds-who are at the age of legal majority and can enlist, marry, adopt children, smoke and gamble-Legal Age 21 has fostered an unhealthy and irresponsible binge-drinking culture among that demographic, which continues to exacerbate uniquely American alcohol-related problems for citizens of all ages.
The statistics in favor of change are startling: "between 1993 and 2001, 18 to 20 year-olds showed a 56% increase in heavy-drinking episodes; 96% of the alcohol consumed by 15 to 20 year-olds is consumed when the drinker is actively engaged in a period of heavy drinking." The Choose Responsibility website states: "The field of neuroscience tells us that this has devastating consequences for developing brains. Since Legal Age 21, less young people are drinking, but those who choose to drink are drinking more."
Legal Age 21 came into effect on July 17, 1984, when President Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which resulted from legislative efforts to curb the U.S. drunk-driving epidemic. The law denies federal highway funds to states that set a drinking age below 21.
The Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving, founded in 1982, initially recommended 39 steps to deter drunk driving, but as Choose Responsibility's website states, "Exclusive interest in raising the drinking age marginalized the effect of the remaining 38 recommendations, among them suggestions to implement youth education programs, establish a massive public information campaign, and to increase penalties for convicted drunken drivers.
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