Poll: should the US drinking age be lowered?
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John McCardell is not exactly the face you would expect to be making an issue of lowering the drinking age in the US. But he is becoming the issue’s poster child.
McCardell, the president emeritus of Middlebury College, is described as having “gray hair, gray suit, soft voice” in an provocative piece on the subject by George Will in the WaPo. Quote:
McCardell thinks that, on campuses, a drinking age of 21 infantilizes students, encouraging immature behavior with alcohol and disrespect for law generally. Furthermore, an “enforcement only” policy makes school administrations adversaries of students and interferes with their attempts to acquaint students with pertinent information, such as the neurological effects of alcohol on young brains. He notes that 18-year-olds have a right to marry, adopt children, serve as legal guardians for minors and purchase firearms from authorized dealers, and are trusted with the vote and military responsibilities. So, he says, it is not unreasonable to think that they can, with proper preparation, be trusted to drink.
So what do you think? Have your say with the new polling software!
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On April 19th, 2007 at 5:30 pm ,J Barnes wrote:
I’ve had the luck of being a underage student at a rather lax school in the States (U of Chicago, hope you’re teaching there next year), as well as, legal student over here in the UK. While to some extent it does “infantilize” students, there seem to be stronger arguments around. While the old standby, “you can die for your country but not have a drink” seems trivial to many because of its commonness, there is a lot there. It seems a sad sad world where we see liqour as more of a responsiblity than citizenship.
On April 19th, 2007 at 5:32 pm ,J Barnes wrote:
Sorry, kind of lost track of where i started there. Namely, kids do stupid things while drunk and getting to college wherever you are, whatever the laws. If anything I’ve watched more kids hurt themselves in the UK than at home. It is just in the states instead of / in addition to getting physically hurt, you get a legal smack as well.
On April 19th, 2007 at 7:31 pm ,Ryan wrote:
It seems that the problem is not with the legal age limit but the way society treats alcohol. My parents had a very lax approach to wine and beer consumption, I was allowed to drink beer and wine with dinner in moderation before I was 18. My parents also stressed the importance of not drinking and driving. When I was in college I was less interested in being a drunken fool than most of my peers. Really this isn’t saying much since I was at Ohio State, but it does say something.
If alcohol were used/viewed in most of society not as an intoxicant, but as beverage to be enjoyed, a drinking age wouldn’t be needed.
On April 19th, 2007 at 8:50 pm ,Salil wrote:
Agree, it’s not about the age when it’s used, but the way it’s treated. In France and much of Europe, families introduce their children to it at a fairly young age over the table, with food in very moderate quantities - and regardless of the drinking age there, it’s not seen as an intoxicant, but really a drink to be had in the same moderation as most other foods.
In the US, there’s a completely different culture around it - it’s looked at as something turned to in large quantities for people to ‘get away’ from the real world, or a substance to binge on at frat parties more than it is as a drink for the table. Unless that changes, changing the age limit isn’t going to have much of an effect.
On April 19th, 2007 at 11:25 pm ,Jack wrote:
Only if the driving age is elevated to 21. That’s really the whole problem.
On April 20th, 2007 at 2:40 am ,Cru Master wrote:
Its seems bizarre, in the USA, that a person of 17 isn’t mature enough to buy himself/herself a beer - yet deemed old enough to join the army, be given a gun and told to go and fight in a war!?
I think there are a few laws that the USA should perhaps revisit - the gun laws in particular.
On April 20th, 2007 at 3:33 am ,Myspace Generators wrote:
No it should not be lowered.
I believe that there would be less MIP’s however there would be more DUI’s!
On April 20th, 2007 at 7:25 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Interesting discussion!
To Ryan and Salil’s points about the culture of consumption, Nick Lander (aka Mr. Jancis Robinson) tackled this issue in his story in the FT last week:
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/20070412
He went to Verona’s wine bars and saw that the patrons were not tossing back the wine despite it being a fraction of the price in the UK. His theory, perhaps a pet theory since he has clearly been putting it to the test since the 1980s, is that the presence of food reduces alcohol consumption.
While it’s true you can’t physically eat and drink and eat at the same time, I’m not sure that if your goal was to get schnockered, that you couldn’t work out a way to do so even if you had a plate of free tapas in front of you. But it sounds like a theory in need of further research–the fun kind of research, hanging out in wine bars!
On April 20th, 2007 at 7:30 am ,Mark Ashley wrote:
While I’m generally in favor of lowering the drinking age, it’s not as easy as flipping a switch or just changing a number.
I think that a public education campaign about how to drink responsibly would be necessary, and in the contentious political climate we’re in, with some finding moral turpitude in every corner, I don’t see it happening.
If the age were lowered, there would be wide cultural variations in the ways alcohol is consumed. Some would abuse it. Some would treat it sensibly, with moderation. Over the course of a generation or two, there would be some “smoothing out” of the differences, maybe, but I’d bet there would be a short-term spike in 19 year olds driving drunk.
Sidebar: There’s also the idea that you give someone under 21 a license to drink, or a license to drive, but not both. Not sure how I feel about that, but it could get around the drunk driving problem and create a pool of designated drivers…
On April 23rd, 2007 at 7:52 am ,Jared S. wrote:
It seems no surprise that readers of a wine blog would overwhelmingly support a reduction of the drinking age. I, too, agree with the comment that the law, however, has little to do with American drinking problems - it’s all about society. But then I would hope that lowering the drinking age would be a sign of social change regarding American attitude towards alcohol.
Laws or not, if you aren’t raised appreciated alcohol for what it is, you may have trouble doing so when first “legally” exposed to it. If we all grew up with dinner and wine, I doubt we’d have as many winos in our midst. And I’m not referring to the “winos” that we responsible wine lovers often call ourselves in jest.
Plus, isn’t a family dinner one of the best ways to appreciate wine anyway? (On so many levels!)
On May 4th, 2007 at 3:42 pm ,Josh W. wrote:
I agree with Jared S., the drinking age should be lowered to 18 especially if the drinking is done with a meal, as most wine drinking is. People in countries throughout Europe are taught to respect drinking and how to drink in moderation from a young age as something to do with a meal and as a result there are fewer alcohol related problems there.
On December 5th, 2007 at 8:30 am ,Dr Vino’s wine blog » Blog Archive » Repeal of Prohibition, age 74 wrote:
[...] let’s raise a glass in honor of having the ability to do so–providing you’re over 21, of [...]
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