A Possible Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age
August 19, 2008
I saw this in the Ann Arbor News:
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/08/college_presidents_call_for_de.html
The snide comment about the police not enforcing the drinking age at some of these college towns is kinda annoying. So is the comment that colleges want to lower the drinking age because it’s a nuisance to have it at 21.
I’ve always felt that lowering the drinking age would help reduce binge drinking in college but have recently been pointed to studies that cause me to question this. You would have to depend on the parents to help their children develop healthy and responsible drinking habits, and not all parents will do that.
Part of the problem with getting good information is that a lot of it comes from groups that have an agenda and will do and say anything to promote it.
One thing that has always bothered me is that someone can choose to serve their country at 18 but can’t legally have a beer with a parent before they leave.
Posted in Uncategorized
August 20th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Okay, I do NOT mean to incite a parent vs. nonparent (or, uh, parent-to-be, Kevin :)) fight here, but I do want to say that I wish that more parents would be responsible enough to help their kids develop good and responsible drinking habits. Actually, there’s a lot that SHOULD be taught but is instead abdicated to schools, etc. But I digress.
My parents talked to me about the issue, with an particular emphasis on not leaving a drink around lest something get put in it. (This was before date rape drugs become all the rage, so my mom must have been prescient). While I did some binge drinking (come on-I was in a sorority!), I knew how to be responsible. It just took a simple conversation + the respect that I had for good advice.
And I totally agree on how most other things are possible when you are 18, but you can’t have a legal drink. Our country is so freaking Puritan!
August 20th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I was chatting with an employee of a brewpub who said he was drinking all the time at 18. He simply bought the equipment and brewed his own beer.
Shows you that the old saying “laws are meant to be broken” still holds true. :-))
August 20th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Does anyone have statistics on the prevalence (or lack) of binge drinking and other problem drinking behaviors in European societies? For example, in Holland, 16-year olds can drink beer (18 for the “hard stuff”). Do they have more, less, or the same level of drinking problems among teens as we do? My guess is less.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:37 am
TeacherPatti, I was a little worried about adding my thoughts because I’m not a parent, and my wife and I will never have kids. So sometimes I feel like my opinion on this means less than parents and future parents. But I don’t like the direction our drinking culture had been heading in the past 20 years and I feel our attitudes toward kids and drinking have a lot to do with that.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Dave, when I first learned about home brewing, I felt like an idiot for not starting when I was a teenager, I would have 20 more years as a craft brewer under my belt. I believe in recent years home brewing supplies have become something that is age controlled but it wouldn’t surprise me that it isn’t closely watched.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Spencer, I’ve heard the stats but don’t have them handy. As I recall in most cases the early drinking age seems to lead to less drinking problems, but seems to lead to more problems in a few countries. And it is also very hard to pin the lower drinking age as the real reason for either case.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I’m not old enough to have been around in the days where Michigan law was 18, it’s been 21 for me since I was born. However, I began drinking beverages pretty much whenever I wanted to in college. On my 21st birthday, I had one beer, maybe two.. I had already learned about over drinking, what I liked, and what I didn’t like (craft beer started for me with that 21st birthday - a Sam Adams!)..
Anyhow, my point is, younger folks are going to find a way to drink regardless of the drinking age. I agree with the “serve the country at 18, but can’t drink.” I also think once your a legal adult at 18, you should be able to make decisions on your own. I made the decision to move out, get a job, go to college. Maybe it’s all how parents raise their kids.. some can handle the responsibility of life, others can’t - or it takes several lessons to realize what it’s all about. If the law does change, there’s going to be a long period of abusers, accidents and education.. but in the long run, it seems like a fair decision.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Jnaz–we are never having kids, either. So I feel the same way sometimes…that I don’t want to add my 2 (or 20) cents because people will sometimes snap at me. I never will be able to understand what it’s like to be a parent, but I hope I can empathize. I try to, any way.
Like Rob, I think it’s always been 21 for me (I’m 36 now) and like Rob, I also started drinking in college. Actually, I did have one rockin’ party when I was in high school and my mom was gone (first drinks were consumed, virginities lost, you know the drill), but no one got hurt and it was all fine. Because again, I knew responsibility.
I’m not sure I want to go here, but what the hell? One facet of responsible drinking is when you add doing it to the mix. I knew plenty of women in college who got drunk and then “regretted” their behavior the morning after. One time, the word “rape” was bandied about on campus, people got suspended and it was a red hot mess. Sorry, but you need to be responsible for your actions and learning how to responsibly drink and know what you want to do–or DON’T want to do–is key, IMHO. THAT’S a talk that we need to have with daughters AND sons.
PS: Hi Spencer! I miss you–I haven’t seen you in ages.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I am not against a lower drinking age but I would not want it to be 18. I think that 19 would be a better age. At 19 you are not in high school. Not that graduating high school makes you anymore mature but I believe there needs to be that separation.
My parents never really talked to me about drinking but they did instill lessons of “right” and “wrong”. The only talks I had had about drinking was if you drink you do not drive. They knew I drank prior to 21 but that was there only rule. I have a 14 month old son at home right now and I plan to raise him the same way if he proves he is mature enough to handle it. That is what I believe is the important factor. You can not set an age for anything that will ensure all are mature enough to handle it. To me this is a major role of parents to guide and make that judgment for their children.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
As a parent to be I am already thinking of how to handle a teenager and drinking. I think about the fact that I have a keg system and a cellar that makes it hard to know how much beer I have. Just last year I found a case of beer I forgot I had brewed. Since beer is easily available at my house I will have to rely on talking to my kids about being responsible. I also must live my own words which is harder than having a conversation about being responsible. I have seen both drinking and nondrinking parents have children with alcohol problems that had tragic outcomes. I will do all I can to prevent that from happening and hope what I did was correct.
As for the drinking age, I like TJ’s idea of it being lowered to 19. One thing I will add through was when I was young Ohio’s drinking age was a two tiered system. They had what was basically an amended Volstead Act. When you turned 19 you got to drink beer or wine coolers. The wine coolers had to be a special kind. My memory fails me about how they decided what you could drink. I’m thinking the product had to be malt based. I hope someone can help me out with that one. Then when you turned 21 you could drink hard alcohol.
I’m concerned that this sort of system would be enacted as a compromise. Since it is a different beer scene than 1986(yes I’m an old dude) they could put the cut-off at an ABV level. Imagine the cash backing lower ABV groups would get that would want to put that clause onto the lower drinking age. The big breweries would corner the 19 to 21 age market. Goverment has the tendency to listen to their coffers before common sense.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Maybe an ABV limit of say…..4% would lock out the Bud they DO drink today but allow such wonderful styles as Mild, Ordinary Bitter, or Weiss to lure young beer drinkers into brewpubs. OK so maybe they wouldn’t drink Weiss but there are low alcohol gems that the micros could, and I wish they would, tap into more often.
And the younguns would have to wait until 21, while maturing their palates with lesser alcohol micros before enjoying a Two Hearted Ale or even a Guinness. Sorry kids, it’s about the rules…
Bud, no doubt, would lower their beer to a lighter alcohol version. And their marketing machine will draw the weak into liking it.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Part of the problem is that 18 is too old not too young. I agree with the younger ages need to have a lower ABV limit, but sips and small drinks should start at home around 16ish. At 18 or 19 they can start going out and getting lower ABV drinks. A small part of the problem is that this all turns into a enforcement nightmare. The big problem is that this need to be something that needs to be enforced.
It seems to me in those countries where people start drinking early and it leads to healthier drinking habits, it’s because they use common sense not a bunch of laws. In the USA we can’t rely on common sense, we need someone to tell us what right and wrong is.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
kennybrew, The guinness we get here is 4.1 ABV.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
hey um im 16. i have drank. my friends have drank. and its no big deal.
the stupid part about it all it that like we have to hid it. yeah i think the drinking age should be lowered to 18.
at 18 you are legally an aduly
you can inlist in war
you can vote
you can get married
if you can decide your future, your countrys future and make a future with someone else i think its only fair that you can have a few drinks while your doing it.
by adults enforcing drinking and not letting us drink untill were of age, then thats putting a drink up on a petistule and its making teens just more curious and want to do it simply because you know your not suposed to.
just lower it and it wont be a big deal and most teens wont even drink untill their older anyway because they wont care