If you want to read the article first http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-drinking0820.artaug20,0,7336823.story?page=1
Redrant: This initiative caught me by surprise. Smoking ban news is slow so I tried to read up on this. First off, my opinion/position on this which I have just formulated.
First off, I'd propose an 18 to 21 age alcohol for beer and wine under 6% alcohol with not distilled alcohol fortification. This is un update on the old 3.2 beer. The vast majority of beer is under 6% alcohol. Some specialty beers and wines have natural alcohol content up to 20% and we don't want an "arms race" here.
I would stay away from any distilled alcohol for 18 to 21 including things wine "coolers" that used distilled alcohol. In the black market of 18 to 20 drinking you aren't going to smuggle a case of beer into a dorm room. I've always considered distilled "hard" liquor to have a much much more of an effect than naturally fermented alcohol. I know of people who can drink regular beer or wine without problem but if they have something like a Jack Daniels cooler they tend to black out. The 18 to 20 drinkers aren't at that stage but the "bootleg" booze is typically the "hard stuff". It's a radical proposal but worth debating.
An interesting irony is that the 21 year old uniform drinking age started in the Orwellian year of 1984. The tool devised then was the withholding of federal funds if states did not pass laws like raising the drinking age to 21.
I've read quite a few articles on the Amethyst Initiative in the last few days. There were a lot of online polls with vague questions but these polls came up close to 50/50, much like the bar smoking polls.
Another factor is potential liability for colleges. You would need airport security level measures at dorms and other college facilities to try to stop "bootlegging". Besides the cost this would be very oppressive.
Added to that there is an "entertainment gap" for 18 to 20 year olds. This lead to things like Raves and a breeding ground for compulsive gambling and (ironically) smoking. Indian/Native American casinos tend to have a age of 18 and you can smoke there. I see Mystik Lake shuttle buses on Lake Street all the time. Greg Lang
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-drinking0820.artaug20,0,7336823.story?page=1
courant.com/news/politics/hc-drinking0820.artaug20,0,7336823.story
Courant.com
Drinking-Age Revolt Gains Converts In State
August 20, 2008
James F. Jones Jr., who is in his fifth year as president of Trinity College, knows he is incurring the wrath of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and probably more than a few parents, by suggesting that the drinking age be lowered. But, frankly, he doesn't really care.He's that fed up with the consequences of what he calls "the clandestine culture" of underage drinking among college students. It's a culture, Jones and other college administrators say, that has led to some very dangerous, and often tragic, behavior."Who in the world is going to stand up against Mothers Against Drunk Driving? It would be like standing up against motherhood and apple pie," Jones said. "But [the current drinking age] is counterproductive because it simply fosters this counterculture of binge drinking, which is epidemic at colleges."Jones is one of six college presidents from Connecticut who have joined the Amethyst Initiative, roughly 100 university administrators calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18.The movement, started by John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, has been gathering supporters across the United States for about a year. In addition to Trinity, Connecticut schools that have joined are the University of Hartford, St. Joseph College, Fairfield University, the University of New Haven and Mitchell College in New London.Binge drinking has been a tragic problem at college campuses across the United States, including Connecticut. One of the best known incidents occurred at Quinnipiac University in Hamden in 2001, when junior Matt Oliveri died of alcohol poisoning after a night of binge drinking.Jones, like some of the other Connecticut administrators who have signed on to the movement, has emotional, practical and philosophical reasons for wanting the issue debated again, 23 years after the drinking age was raised to 21 in Connecticut.First, the practical."The fact that kids can't drink until they're 21 legally simply forces them to do it clandestinely, and when they do, you get irresponsible behavior in the residence halls," Jones said. "You get younger students getting older students to go to the liquor store for them, and you get the binge drinking in the dorm rooms."Jones also has trouble with the disconnect in the message the government is sending 18year-olds, who can vote, serve on a jury, sign a contract and serve in the military -- but not drink."If we're going to send someone to fight in Iraq, I don't understand why that is an adult prerogative but buying a beer legally is not," Jones said, adding that students don't believe the drinking age limit should apply to them, in part, because of this disconnect.J. Lee Peters, vice president for student affairs at the University of Hartford, agreed and said the scope of underage binge drinking problem is enormous."I have hundreds of students, and I know every other college administrator has the same thing, who are sitting in their rooms throwing down multiple drinks so they can pre-load [their bodies with alcohol] before going out," Peters said. "It's a recipe for disaster."Peters said he saw firsthand what happens when the illegality issue is removed from drinking when he helped lead a semester at sea in 2004 with 440 college students from around the country.Once the ship left shore and entered international waters, Peters said, there was no drinking age, which meant that the 18- to 22-year-old students on board could socialize -- and drink -- openly with the faculty on the trip. Because of that openness, Peters said, he and staff members could monitor what was happening, and there were fewer incidents of drunken behavior."Before I went on that trip, I wasn't a big fan of this [idea]," Peters said. "I thought it was kind of a cop-out, to try to change the law rather than work within the law. But I learned you have much more influence on a student by dealing with their behavior and not [focusing on] whether they broke the law."The MADD ViewOfficials with both the national and state offices of MADD would say that lowering the drinking age is a cop-out, however, and will lead to more fatal car accidents. They also maintain that studies have clearly shown raising the drinking age has reduced drunken-driving deaths nationally -- a claim backed up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others.In fact, according to a federal study of fatal drunken-driving accidents from 1982 to 1998, Connecticut saw a decline of about 85 percent in accidents involving drivers age 16-20."We're opening up the floodgates here," said Janice Heggie Margolis, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of MADD.Margolis said that while the higher age limit has helped decrease the number of fatal accidents, she and other MADD officials are concerned that people have become complacent recently. She cited a national study showing Connecticut experienced an 11 percent increase in fatal drunkendriving accidents in 2006."We know that we must continue to decrease access and availability of alcohol to young adults, and if we drop the 21-year-old drinking age, that's going to make it that much easier for young people to get alcohol," Margolis said.College administrators, though, say that students are continually finding new ways to obtain alcohol illegally and that the law simply isn't stopping them."There's an entire fake-ID industry," Jones said.State Rep. Michael Lawlor agreed.Lawlor, an East Haven Democrat who serves as both the chairman of the legislature's powerful judiciary committee and as an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven, said students are "very resourceful" when it comes to getting around the drinking age law."You can get a fake driver's license for $60. They look very real and all the kids have them," Lawlor said.He said he can't envision the state lowering its drinking age without a corresponding move by the federal government, though. That's because of the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which imposes a 10 percent penalty on a state's federal highway grant if it lowers the drinking age below 21.But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be discussed, he said. "It's worth talking about," Lawlor said. "If in fact you can pass a law to stop the behavior, then it's a good idea to pass the law. But if you pass the law and it makes [the situation] worse, which is arguably what is happening, then you need to rethink it." That's where Pamela Trotman Reid, president of St. Joseph College, comes down.Reid said a public discussion about the issue, and a closer, more informed look at the data, are imperative because the problem of underage drinking is so acute.She said she's not convinced that raising the drinking age is the only factor contributing to a decrease in drunken-driving fatalities, and wonders if increased education, stiffer legal consequences and the introduction of the concept of designated drivers have played equal parts.And, like Jones, Reid wants the issue reopened because she has seen firsthand the tragic consequences when students shut themselves up in their rooms to drink, where no one can monitor them."When I was at the University of Michigan, a female student fell out of her dorm window after a night of binge drinking and died," Reid said. "No one wants to be in that position, to have to face parents and tell them their child has died."Senior Information Specialist Cristina Bachetti contributed to this report.Contact Elizabeth Hamilton at ehamilton@courant.com.
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