I agree. At age 18 you are old enough to vote and to sign a contract, including signing up to go fight in wars. It makes no sense people who are 18 can not drink. Also, laws about parents contributing to deliquency of minors should be revised. As long as the person is say, 14 or over, (heck in Europe they drink younger than that I think) and as long as no party is going on whether other teenagers are involved, it should be fine for kids to drink with their parents. Maybe then they would learn to drink responsible rather than learning from their older friends at dark and hiddne places. Just a little common sense would go a long way.

So there will be no binge drinking on college campuses if 18 is the legal age?

Riiiiiiiiiiiight...

"Just a little common sense would go a long way...."

I agree. But until people are willing to limit alcohol consumption to no more than two glasses of red wine with the evening meal, "common sense" hasn't a lot to do with it.

The majority of people in this culture drink to get drunk. Pardon me if I don't want eighteen-year-olds who are sincerely convinced they are immortal snockered and sharing roads with my loved ones.

Fourteen year olds drinking legally? Sure, then give them all automatic weapons. Why not.

I always thought that a high school diploma would be a good license to buy alcohol. It keeps the booze out of the high schools and eliminates the BS about kids being capable of tarring their lungs, dying for their country, driving cars, etc., but not being able to have A drink.

That being said, I don't think lowering the drinking age would have a significant impact on binge-drinking in college. I did MORE of that after I turned 21. ;-)

18 is still HS age. I don't think HSers should be drinking.

19 is a better compromise.

I've always said lower the drinking age, but raise the driving age.

Unless you want to argue that our country's policy is to send children to war, you'd have to say that an 18 year old is an adult who should have the full rights of any other adult.

The other bloggers have a point. 18 isn't a magic number to curtail binge drinking. But the appeal of forbidden fruit can be overwhelming. Drinking should be part and parcel with eating, not a test of manhood.

I say if you are old enough to go to Niet Nam, you are old enough to go into a bar.

Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Show a military ID and get a drink!

If you can serve your country in the military... you should be able to buy beer!

Most of the binge drinking is as outgrowth of repression and rebellion. Some just wanna get high, but some are punishing their parents.

Most of it is the preachers daughter syndrome.

Bad idea....... Go figure some fucking lib college presidents want this. Lets just make heroin legal, these kids are mature enough to handle it.

College Presidents should probably be more concerned with campus safety and education rather than trying to legislate alcoholic beverage consumption. If considering lowering the drinking age to 18 will curtail binge drinking from that group - is it possible that it will encourage bin drinking by 16 year olds?

Cue over-reaction....now:

"Bad idea....... Go figure some fucking lib college presidents want this. Lets just make heroin legal, these kids are mature enough to handle it."

So instead of trying to drink 21 drinks when they turn 21 they will only drink 18 drinks when they turn 18.

Decrease the binge drinking by 3 drinks.

And these people get paid 6 figures a year--maybe more to come up with this crap.

It's actually a very good idea. I do agree with the idea that if you are an adult at 18 then you have the right to have a beer just like any other adult...and that if parents want to share a drink with their kids such as wine at dinner then that's no big deal.

When I went to college, the drinking age in my home state (NY) was 18. I wasn't quite 18 then but was often served in local bars back home. Anyhow, I went to college in Indiana, where the drinking age was 21. The town my school is in is just over the border from Ohio, where the age was 18 for 3.2 beer and 21 for hard liquor. The campus had been having a tough time with kids driving over to Ohio to get beer ... or to go to bars... then coming back drunk and causing all kinds of problems of course. So, the town police and the college agreed that they'd allow kids 18 - 21 to drink on campus so long as they kept it there. My very first weekend at college there was a keg party in the cafeteria, the school was fully aware of it and hired local police to do security. They served beer without any age check.

Anyhow, the campus and the town probably made the right decision. It was better to have to deal with some passed out kids than it was to have them killed driving back from Ohio. Take away the forbidden fruit syndrome and it's less of a temptation.

Stop criminalizing what people choose to put into their own bodies.

I agree with those of you who worry about 18, 19, and 20 year olds hitting the roads after drinking, but I do not agree with your conclusions. If the drinking age is lowered, those young people could go to bars, and student unions (at least here in Wisconsin) to drink. There would be some form of supervision for them (especially if there were laws like those Michigan enacted to make the bar owners and servers legally responsible for their service--for instance, it is illegal to serve anyone who is visibly inebriated).

Two of the most dangerous venues for drinking come as a direct response to the 21 year drinking age: the field party and the house party.

In the field party, young people drive to the event and drink as quickly as they can so they can get drunk but limit the amount of time they have a chance to get caught. At these parties, police scanners are used to warn the partiers if they have been discovered, and when they discover that their location is known, they pile into their cars and truck and drive away to avoid arrest. The 21 year old limit does nothing to stop the drinking at these parties, but it does send kids out on the road after they have been drinking.

The house party might be even more dangerous, for the students gather in homes for keggers, and they drink as fast as they can to maximize their "donation." These parties are so dangerous because they are held in the basements of homes so the police will not see what is going on when they drive by on patrol. This means that there will be a large number of kids packed into the basement of an old house--many times a house with questionable electric work In It--and there will be just one exit. If a fire would break out, I fear that the death toll could be tragically high.

I do worry about binge drinking, but I do not see how the laws we have now do anything to slow those who are between 18 and 21. There are, and I know you many of you will laugh, programs that have had good results on binge drinking. Schools like Northern Illinois University have developed education programs that effectively get students to resist the pressure to binge drink. Trust me, university presidents tend to not be "liberal;" they do want to fix problems on their campus, and student drinking is a serious problem. So this suggestion has far more to do with realism that some sort of liberal mindset.

Droping the age to 18 makes complete sense because the reason for the binging IS because it's illegal.

If you can't get something, and then you walk into a party and it's just there for the taking.... You're going to binge, because it won't be there tomorrow.
I saw it at college and I saw it at numerous parties in my early 20's after college. The hardest drinkers were always the under 21ers. Over 21 still drank to get drunk, don't get me wrong, but they weren't slaming it down to get wasted as fast as possible.

I went to U of I, and you could get into the bars at 19, and the cops never checked the chill bars where we hung out (the frat bars kept them busy). So I was able to drink quasi-legally at 19, but it was still a binge situation because there was no beer at home, so when you got to the bar on Friday night you hit it hard.

My roommate turned 21 first, and once we had beer at the apartment, and you could have one whenever you wanted, suddenly there was no reason to binge at the bar on Friday night. I could have a couple at the bar, walk home and have a couple more at home if I wanted. I didn't have to get all my drinking for the evening in by 1am.

You want to see binge drinking? Go to a age 19 college bar half an hour before closing time. The 19-20 year olds are chugging.

I woke up this morning and still had a buzz from last night. I have no idea how I got home in one piece.
When I got in to my car to head to work this morning, there was a bloody reflective joggers vest stuck to the hood and part of an Ipod stuck in the grill of the car.
Who the fuck buys their dog an Ipod and a joggers vest?

Why did you wake up, 101?

Ouch...How will I recover from that?

Lowering the drinking age will only move the parties from the dorms to the pubs. When I was 18 and if I had a choice to party at the dorm because drinking was illegal or head to the local pub because it's legal, I would have chosen the latter. More fun to be found at the pub. With that having been said, more drunk drivers will be on the road increasing the likelihood of an alcohol related accident.

I wonder if any of these college presidents have a stake in the local pub?

Could we also lower the age of consent while we're at it?

YeeHaw!

With that having been said, more drunk drivers will be on the road increasing the likelihood of an alcohol related accident.

All the more reason to ditch your car and the crappy suburbs and live in a walkable community. If you walk to the pub, there is no drunk driving to worry about.
If I had to chose between a car and beer, the car's gone, I'm walking.

And since this is about college, who the hell drives to a college bar? I'd say 99% of UIUC students walk to the bars, as they should. How else are you supposed to walk behind the cute girls in the miniskirts?

"Lets just make heroin legal"

Posted by retnluvnit

Yes!! Now we're making some progress!

Toga, toga!!!!

Testimony to the fact they can't be taught, wouldn't learn anyway, have poor instructors who ARE tenured and therefore can't be fired, are on their way to getting those MBAs to join with fellow students to intellectually screw the remaining integrity of our Financial system with NO conscience or care!

Let's all get drunk, I'll pass you! Much rather have a drinking buddy, than a student anyway! Don't worry, the money's good, and you'll get yours!

Old enough to be drafted, old enough to drink.

Therefore, women should never be allowed to drink until they are able to be drafted or go out on a date.

Just once I'd like to see MADD explain the difference between 18 years old and not old enough to drink and 18 years old and old enough for selective service.

pssst -- Dogen -- you're ranting and not making sense...don't worry, I won't tell.....

Sorry, but I disagree with the assumption that a higher drinking age promotes or encourages binge drinking. What promotes or encourages binge drinking, is....well...drinking.

I agree that if someone is old enough to fight and die for their country, they should be old enough to get drunk before or after. But, I fail to see how lowing the drinking age will help at all.

It's not even as if the drinking age makes any difference. If you want you kids to not be drunks, teach them the difference between casual drinking, and binge drinking. Let them know that the occasional drink here and there is perfectly fine, but overindulgence (as with any and all drugs) is bad.

I believe that only until we change the attitudes towards drinking and having a good time will we see a change.

I believe that only until we change the attitudes towards drinking and having a good time will we see a change.

Posted by Oberon

I agree, and one of the best ways to do that is not to make alchohol this magic forbidden fruit that only those over 21 are allowed to even legally think about.

Several months before I entered the Navy, 18 year olds could drink on base in San Diego because it was a deterrent to having them go down to Tijuana. Shortly after they stopped allowing the drinking on base, the DUI and alcohol related accidents numbers jumped significantly.

It's funny that last week, we were discussing a grown man being arrested for his 10th DUI, yet here we are debating whether or not an 18 yr old could handle the concept responsible drinking.
Oberon is right by suggesting teaching the young adults about drinking,but that would mean parents a responsibility.

...18 year olds could drink on base...

When my son was in the Army he told me that they allowed under 21 YOs to drink in the EM clubs.

18 is still HS age. I don't think HSers should be drinking.

19 is a better compromise.

Posted by goatman at 2008-08-18 10:55 PM

I agree with you 100%. There are too many 18 year olds still in high school to let them be allowed to buy and drink liquor. They would soon be buying it (or at the very least pushed into buying it) for all their 15-17 year old high school friends. College age 19 year olds are a different story altogether as they tend to hang with other college-age kids. Not so with all 18 year olds.

Chris,
Many parents and other adults purchase alcohol for underage kids. I don't see what the difference would be if a kid found a 18 yr old buyer or a 40 yr old buyer. Now if the kid is taught from an early age about the pros and cons of drinking, and is aware of the expectations of him/her while drinking, I believe 18 yr olds should be able to handle themselves in an adult manner