U.S. College Professors Seek to Lower Legal Drinking Age

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Who has not heard the argument that a boy can join the Army but can't drink a beer? It is one of the conundrums facing the United States policies on responsibility and adulthood. The Amethyst Initiative is aimed at bringing these issues to light.

Launched in July 2008, the Amethyst Initiative is made up of chancellors and presidents of universities and colleges across the United States. These higher education leaders have signed their names to a public statement 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 Amethyst Initiative supports informed and unimpeded debate on the 21 year-old drinking age. Amethyst Initiative presidents and chancellors call upon elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.

Currently in America the legal drinking age is 21, however the legal age of adulthood is 18. This conflict of interest has caused irritation from many people, from young adults who have joined the military, to young couples who have married and had children before the ripe old age of 21. The message being sent is that you can die for your country, make a life altering decision, and be the soul caretaker and responsible for another human being, but you cannot be responsible to drink. In an attempt to drink before the drinking age young adults have chosen to break the law and use fake IDs, the Amethyst Initiative argues that the minimum drinking age causes a disrespect for the law altogether.

1984 hailed the year that the States lost the right to set a legal drinking age lower than 21 without losing a 10% amount of federal funding for highways. This put rather severe consequences on states that did not acquiesce to the federal mandate in the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The atmosphere surrounding drinking since then has escalated to a dangerous affair when underage drinkers attempt to throw off the prohibition like act and exercise their own judgement. As the Amethyst Initiative statement suggest, this is like giving abstinence only education to kids before they make the decision to drink. The consequences are not only atrocious for the child who may become an alcoholic but could also put his or her life in danger as well as those around them.

Proponents of a younger drinking age say that preparing kids with the proper education about safe drinking practices will better serve the children as well as the community. If a child is taught appropriate practices they may be less likely to drink and drive, or even binge drink. Some cite European practices such as having wine with a meal, or allowing 14 year olds to drink as long as they are in a bar or establishment as the way to go. Others argue that it is a slippery slope to having a drunken society. Europe again is pointed to as a recent report shows that public drunkenness has caused troubles in London.

The Amethyst Initiative is hoping to bring forth all the pros and cons of drinking in a dispassionate discussion through a forum of citizens, politicians, and college faculty.