Monday, September 17, 2007

Look Who's in the New York Times (Again)

If you guessed President Emeritus John McCardell, you'd be right.

Highlights from his Letter to the Editor:

"The law says it is illegal to drink if you’re not 21. The law is routinely flouted. The violators are in every other respect, in the eyes of the law, adults."

"Alcohol is a reality in the lives of young adults age 18 to 20. Most of the rest of the world acknowledges that reality with its laws. For some reason, the United States seems stuck in the virtuous mire of prohibition."

"'Strict enforcement' won’t work: statistics show that only 2 out of every 1,000 violations of legal age 21 result in arrest or citation. Yet the illusion that the 21-year-old drinking age has been an unmitigated blessing persists."

Check out McCardell's website for Choose Responsibility.

Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to 18? Hit the comments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course.

Unknown said...

yes, except that there is a bracket of underage drinkers, and if you lower the drinking age you're also going to lower that bracket. there are 18 year olds in high school, and now young high schoolers are going to find it even easier to obtain alcohol from their legal age 18 friends (yes, they're supposed to get busted for providing alcohol to underage people but does that happen under the current situation? not so much). the fact that legal age 18 would make it easier for even younger teens to have access to alcohol is my reservation with the whole thing.

on the books...