Simple Solutions: Underage Drinking
Underage drinking is a serious problem. All you have to do is google “underage drinking” to pull up scores of web-sites dedicated to proving what a serious problem it is and how we must step up enforcement of the laws. More underage drinking is reported every year, and it’s time for a crack-down. Or perhaps it’s time for a simple solution– lower the drinking age.
THIS MUST STOP!
Most laws relating to the consumption of alcohol are blue laws, that is, laws intended to control public morality. Many alcohol laws are antiquated and ineffective; many others are downright silly. Prohibition was a failure, and Congress apparently lost interest in alcohol except as something to be taxed. The ATF has received quite a bit of publicity in recent years through the War on Guns, but don’t forget it is a Bureau of the Treasury Department, and the F for Firearms is in third place behind Alcohol and Tobacco. The mission of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is to “enforces federal laws and regulations relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives and arson.” When it comes to federal laws and regulations relating to alcohol and tobacco, it’s just a matter of taxes.
Apart from the National Drinking Age, alcoholic beverages are regulated by state and local governments. And what a hodge-podge of laws you can find if you start looking! To start with, many states have what is called a “local option,” meaning that alcohol can be completely banned in a county or a town. There are states where beer and wine are available in grocery stores and drug stores, but there are no liquor stores– the state itself operates the liquor stores. In one particular city you could not buy an alcoholic beverage with a meal in a restaurant– but you could order a “set-up” consisting of a glass and the mixer of your choice, so you could mix your own drinks from a bottle that you brought in with you, and that you had to keep under the table, in a paper bag. In Utah a bartender cannot dispense a drink from anything other than a miniature, one-shot bottle.
As you might imagine, drinking ages were all over the place. In some places an 18-year-old could buy and consume beer and wine, but not hard liquor. In other places 18-year-olds could buy 3.2% beer but nothing stronger (if they’re gonna get drunk, by God we’ll make ‘em take some time to do it!). On federal lands, including military bases, 18-year-olds could drink beer and in fact GI’s could buy beer tax-free in the PX or BX, at less than half the cost in the civilian world.
Then in the 1980’s Congress decided that the minimum age for alcohol consumption should be 21. And they got away with it by denying federal highway funds to states that allowed people under 21 to drink.
Here are some of things you can legally do the minute you turn 18:
Vote.
Get married.
Buy a car.
Get your own credit card.
Buy cigarettes and Lotto tickets.
Enlist in the Marines.
Buy a gun.
Drink a glass of champagne at your own wedding reception… Annnnh! Nope, can’t do that unless you’re 21.
Here are some of the things you can legally do the minute you turn 21:
Buy and consume alcoholic beverages.
Gamble in a casino that serves alcoholic beverages.
In the interest of fairness, we should point out that you can’t run for Congress until you are 25, for the Senate until you are 30, or for the Presidency until you are 35. And it’s just about impossible to rent a car if you are under 25. But you can buy a car at 18. And drive one at 15 in most states.
The drinking age was increased to 21 because our federal “authorities” were alarmed by the number of alcohol-related fatal traffic accidents involving people under 21. It was a problem, but the statistics were known to be wildly inaccurate, and were often misrepresented. For example, there was no differentiation between drivers and passengers, so if 2 adults and 6 children were killed in an accident where one of the adults was driving drunk, that counted as 6 underage alcohol-related fatalities. The proof of this is that those same statistics are showing a decline in teenage drunk driving deaths, but there are still a lot of them.
Alcohol-related Highway Tragedy
Another problem with the statistics was that younger drivers are disproportionately more likely to be involved in accidents, period.
Underage drinking is still a problem despite the laws against it, and to a significant extent it is a problem because of the laws.
Points to ponder:
1. Prohibition of alcohol for those under 21 encourages binge drinking and abuse.
Teenagers will be exposed to alcohol in situations where there is no
adult supervision, and encouraged by their peers to make the most of a rare opportunity.2. At the same time, parents have no ability to teach their children
responsible use of alcohol. It is illegal for them to serve alcoholic beverages to their children in their own home, even if the “child” is married, has kids of his or her own, and perhaps even a college degree.3. You can drink at 18 in Canada, England, Australia, and just about
everywhere else in the Western World (at 16 in large parts of Europe and
South America), and they don’t seem to have the problems that we do.4. Every American alive, who turned 21 before 1984, grew up in a world
where you didn’t have to be 21 to enjoy the amber liquid. We survived!5. Most college students (undergrads, that is) are under 21, and yet
drinking on college campuses is a long-standing tradition–
despite the public posturing of college administrators. Campuses almost
always have their own police forces, so enforcement of drinking laws can
be pretty casual and violations do not often have the serious
consequences that they do off-campus. That’s another example of
Privilege enjoyed by the children of rich folks, denied to children who
have to go into the real world at 18.6. The son of a guy who works next-door to the SG offices came home
last week– having lost an arm in Iraq– and we’re looking forward to seeing
him again. Too bad we can’t buy him a beer.
That young and inexperienced drivers are more likely to be involved in fatal car crashes is indeed a very serious problem. And it’s true that teenage drunk driving is less of a problem in other parts of the world because there are fewer cars, and fewer teenagers driving them. But that’s another problem, to be the subject of another SG diatribe real soon now.
–SG
What do you think? Please enter a comment below.
April 19th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
It is an interesting idea. I always thought that the 21 drinking age and the 55mph speed limit was unconstitutional. Well you probably know in Colorado if they catch you providing alcohol to a kid under 21 they are going to pull YOUR drivers license! Stengazette ought to be required reading in the Statehouse.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Being a high school student, i feel the pressure to drink. I believe that if the drinking age is once again lowered to 18, there will be far less fatalities and accidents. I also live in Colorado where the laws are way strict.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 am
there is no point to a drinking age because if kids wanna drink they will find a way
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:10 pm
lowering the drinking age is not a solution to the problem, the problem is a social problem kids wanna go get drunk or stoned not because its a rebeling thing its because we have social pressure to do it. i am in my second year in college and i feel you need to look at the music that we listen to and other social pressures
P.S. i still drink
December 5th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
joeee says “…kids wanna go get drunk or stoned not because its a rebeling thing its because we have social pressure to do it.” When did the two become mutually exclusive? Can’t there be peer pressure to “rebel” and/or ignore unpopular laws?
But the main point is that if too many kids want to drink too much, you can’t fix the problem by raising the legal drinking age. In fact, it makes it worse because we force the drinking underground where we have no ability to monitor it, much less control it. Yes, alcohol is just one small part of the “sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll” formula but as with all ideological wars, efforts to legislate responsible behavior are worse than useless.
Of course we could always engage in a bit of parsing…. If the problem is defined as people consuming alcohol before they have reached the legal age, then you do solve the problem by lowering the drinking age. If that sounds a bit silly, it’s deliberate. The problem is not underage drinking. The problem is people who drink too much and endanger others, regardless of their age.