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Lower NYS Drinking Age Now

2 September 2008 Comments Written by: Andrew S.

Flickr user: Gala Iglesias Brickles

I was kind of shocked to read this poorly-constructed editorial in today’s Democrat and Chronicle. The current debate is over the drinking age and whether it should be lowered to 18. The answer is simple, really. Of course it should! I’ve been abroad to Italy and seen first hand a country where there is no drinking age at all (technically it is 18, but not enforced), and contrary to common knowledge, there are not hoards of drunken teens in the street. If anything, as a 19 and 20 year-old at the time, I was usually the youngest person in the bars - often by more than 5 years. This rebuttal by the Democrat and Chronicle is absolutely ridiculous because it says ‘we can’t lower the drinking age because even 21 year-olds have drinking problems’. This is an absurd argument because it fails to consider that maybe the reason 21 year-olds have drinking problems is because they have been ‘let off the leash’ and have been repressed their whole lives.

Ask people my age (23) and most of them will agree that legal drinking should coincide with the entrance to college. You could even ask people my parents age who remember the drinking age of 18 and they will tell you the same thing. Most of the drinking-related issues on campus are caused by illegals trying to hide their activity and therefore drinking in more dangerous situations than they would be if they were out at a bar or somewhere else with more supervision.

Below is the full-text of today’s article:

More evidence against lowering the drinking age

Even 21-year-olds struggle with alcohol consumption

Democrat and Chonicle Editorial - September 2, 2008

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More arguments continue to pour in against the push to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18.

A new study has confirmed what many already know — young people often binge drink or worse on their 21st birthdays. On average, men consume 12 drinks on their 21st birthday while women consume nine.

Sadly, it doesn’t stop there. At the University of Texas-Austin, 12 of 152 students reported drinking 21 drinks on their birthdays. That’s outrageous. And the dangerous habits extend beyond that one “celebratory” night. The study found that drinking and driving increased 6 percent in the two weeks after turning 21.

But going all out once a young person is finally “legal” has become an expected ritual. Drinking in today’s culture is pervasive.

Take, for example, the Iowa community college president who resigned last week after a photo surfaced of him appearing to pour beer into a young woman’s mouth.

Such stats and stories make the push to lower the drinking age by 129 college presidents so disturbing. Luckily, others, such as New York’s Karen Carpenter-Palumbo, head of the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, are speaking out.

College presidents such as Joel Seligman, too, are fighting the change. But such officials, and parents too, need to offer solutions. Even at 21, young people are struggling with the responsibility that comes with alcohol consumption. That’s where the focus should be, not on lowering the legal age.

Again, this article is laughable because its ‘evidence’ is actually being championed by those on my side of the issue as proof that the age needs to be lowered! This paternalism by the Democrat and Chronicle makes me sick. The best responses that I hear on a regular basis to this type of argument are usually along the lines of this comment by appoggiatura:

How do you people have the nerve to say that anyone 18 years old is Mature enough to Serve - and possibly Die for their Country - and then turn around and state that the same individual is NOT Mature enough to drink alcohol??!! Preposterous!!

You people like to talk out of both sides of your mouths!! Its time you came down on one side of this issue of the other; you CAN’T have it BOTH WAYS!!

ANYONE OLD ENOUGH TO SERVE & DIE IS OLD ENOUGH TO PURCHASE ALCOHOL. PERIOD.

I certainly didn’t serve my country in uniform while I was studying abroad, but I did act as an ambassidor for my country. I can empathize with how these servicemen and servicewomen must feel because I felt like a second-class citizen after returning to the US. I had been able to drink legally for four months, only to return and be treated like a criminal in my own country. Outrageous!