Posted on 04/16/2009 2:05:18 PM PDT by zaphod3000
For the past 20 years, the U.S. has maintained a Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21 (MLDA21), with little public debate about the wisdom of this policy. Recently, however, more than 100 college and university presidents signed the Amethyst Initiative, a public statement calling for "an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age."
SNIP
Our research compares traffic fatality rates in states before and after they changed their MLDA from 18 to 21. In contrast to all earlier work, however, we examined separately the impact in states that adopted an MLDA21 on their own and those that were coerced by the FUDAA.
The results are striking. Virtually all the life-saving impact of the MLDA21 comes from the few early-adopting states, not from the larger number that resulted from federal pressure. Further, any life-saving effect in those states that first raised the drinking age was only temporary, occurring largely in the first year or two after switching to the MLDA21.
Our results thus challenge both the value of the MLDA21 and the value of coercive federalism. While we find limited evidence that the MLDA21 saves lives when states adopted it of their own volition, we find no evidence it saves lives when the federal government compels this policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Don’t forget free needles so the kiddies can experiment with heroin without getting HIV.
An odd factoid: alcoholism is less among American Jews of orthodox observance (who make frequent use of moderate amounts of ceremonial wine, starting at teen ages) than among the general population where they live. A moral framework surrounding the use of alcohol lessens its abuse.
The concept of the law must be objective and easily understood. Instead it is manipulative.
We say, “We are a nation of laws”, but it is not true and hasn't been for most of the 20th century. Populism and special interests have made us a nation of men who use laws to feather their own positions.
Government needs to be neutral in the area of most human affairs. God did it in 10 commandments. Why do we need millions?
The government makes big bucks harassing anybody that even has a beer on their breath,although not legally intoxicated. Ditto for towing companies and shyster lawyers.
I’m afraid that the ONLY young people who DO NOT indulge in underage drinking are those that just plain obey the law. There are those who don’t drink and will NEVER drink but they are never a problem.
The difficulty is that those who intend to drink, legally or illegally, somehow find a way to obtain it. This is where the binge drinking excitement overcomes any good sense the young drinker may have. I’ve heard young people say, “have another drink, we got to finish the bottle then toss it away, and we don’t want to waste any.”
The “thrill” of the “forbidden fruit” is so very tempting to the young..part of their rebellion.
I don’t like the young drinking, but I don’t see much success in the “LAW” stopping it.
I think the age at which they’re a legal adult is perfectly reasonable.
In Illinois it used to be 19 for beer and wine, 21 for the hard stuff. They raised it in 1980, I believe, effective January 1. A friend of mine turned 19 on December 27 of 79 and had four days to legally drink, then had to wait two more years. On New Years Eve he went to a liquor store and they guy just laughed when he saw his ID, saying "Man, they sure screwed you."
There were very few run-ins with the law. I never heard of any drunk driving arrests or alcohol-related auto accidents. Your parents were a bigger concern, and belive me they monitored our consumption and behavior.
>We say, “We are a nation of laws”, but it is not true and hasn’t been for most of the 20th century.
Agreed:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dv698tm_22dr6x3nfb
Prohibition for college students has worked almost as well as the War on Drugs.
Not odd at all imo. I have mixed feelings on this issue. When my Mom was growing up in Italy there was no drinking age. The attitude there is totally different. My Nonna would send her out to buy a bottle of wine (at age 8 or so), and on the way home my Mom would take a few sips because she liked the taste. When she was a teen here in the U.S. one of her uncles wanted her to taste beer or something so she wouldn't be curious and get herself into trouble elsewhere.
I don't know if no age limit would work in the U.S. I agree with other posters who say it is about attitude.
From a psychological perspective, what is forbidden becomes more attractive, at least for teens. I don't have any answers as to what the right way is for the U.S.
I wish people didn’t drink so damn much.
I’ve seen no good come from it in my life experience.
Now, years later, they raise the drinking age to 21 but 18yr olds can still serve in the military and vote.
So,you can be responsible enough to serve in the military and vote, but not responsible enough to have a drink.
Sheesh.
That said, I agree 100% with Vaquero and others here that if you're old enough to serve and old enough to vote, you're old enough to do other legal adult things, too.
The 21 drinking age law is useless....the kids either get the booze, anyway...or just turn to drugs.
The 18 drinking age would actually foster a little more alcohol responsibility at a younger age
Note that “binge drinking” never was a serious problem until the age was raised to 21. The higher drinking age kept college students out of bars (where they would drink less, since it would be more expensive per drink) and into buying it bulk at a liquor/grocery store thru a friend 21/over
The problem at colleges is worse now with the 21-year age limit, because it forces drinking off campus, to parties where there is no supervision. If there had to be drinking at college parties, it was safer when it was relegated to the campus.
And, if the freshmen and sophomores are caught, they face having a legal record follow them around for the rest of their lives.
Even a mother in New England who permitted a party at her house where beer was served, with close supervision (including no driving afterwards), found herself in trouble with the law because her guests were legally underage. (Whereas, if she had just let them party elsewhere with no supervision, she’d have been just fine as far as the law was concerned—no matter how much less safe that would have been for everyone else.)
An odd factoid: alcoholism is less among American Jews of orthodox observance (who make frequent use of moderate amounts of ceremonial wine, starting at teen ages) than among the general population where they live. A moral framework surrounding the use of alcohol lessens its abuse.
Alcoholism is least in any population of religiously observant peoples who spend over $1000 plus per years on tithes (fees) to their religious community.
“It could be that the reason fatality stats are significantly different only in the states that changed the age voluntarily is that those states actually ramped up enforcement, whereas the others just changed their laws to pay lip service to the feds and keep their federal money, but did nothing additional on enforcement.”
In addition, it’s more likely that states with “a problem” ie. high rates of <21 alcohol-related deaths were the most likely to adopt stricter laws. Once that approach was extended to states with much smaller problems (e.g., I’m guessing alcohol-related deaths in Utah are much lower due to cultural reasons), those states saw little or no improvement in their already-low fatality rates.
One size does not fit all. Maybe we should pass a law forcing all policymakers to learn this basic fact.
We teach children to drive at 15, and give them licenses at 16. But we don't teach them to drink until they are 21, at which point they initially abuse alcohol (at 18 without parents' knowledge) and then drive.
What if we taught them to drink at an earlier age, and once they master that one, we teach them to drive? In other words, drinking age is 16, permit age is 17, driving age is 18?
-PJ
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