YES, 16- YEAR OLDS WILL LEARN TO DRINK MORE RESPONSIBLY
The legal drinking age in the United States, all things considered, should be 16. I’m neither off my rocker nor a paid spokesman for Miller Brewing Company. I mean it.
Almost everybody – even a government official or police officer as long as they are off-duty – agrees that the current national standard of 21 is a farce. It breeds disrespect for the law and legal order. It creates a culture of evasion, binge drinking and selective enforcement. It detracts from the educational mission of the United States’ best colleges and universities, Marquette among them. It encourages drunkenness and the use of cheap, inferior beers and spirits. In contrast, we should seek sophisticated appreciation of Wisconsin-brewed craft beers and fine wines from around the world.
More than 100 college presidents from across the United States have recognized that the 21-year-old standard is broken and have signed the Amethyst Initiative, a proposal to reduce the legal drinking age to 18. This initiative includes two
Jesuit universities, Santa Clara University and St. Joseph’s University.
This is laudable, but not far-reaching enough. As long as underage drinking is a “forbidden fruit”, it will never end. A legal drinking age of 18 will shift the problem of underage drinking from colleges to high schools. High school seniors being able to buy alcohol legally means freshman, sophomores and juniors will drink too.
I support a drinking age of 16 because 16-year-olds are far more likely than 18-year-olds or 21-year-olds to have a parent or responsible adult supervise their drinking. Readers who have studied and traveled abroad in Germany can testify that widespread social chaos does not happen with so low a drinking age.
“What about drinking and driving?” you might ask. Of course, it’s madness to allow 16-year-old rookie drivers to drink – and I agree! I propose a zero-tolerance policy for drinking and driving: all 16-to-21-year old drivers caught with any amount of alcohol in their system, even a 0.02, lose their license for 18 months, on the spot, no whining. The standard, at age 21, would be “relaxed” to existing drunk-driving laws at 0.08 on up.
All said a drinking age of 16 is an eminently sensible idea. Don’t you agree?
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