Posted: 02/28/07

A question of mature drinking
Is 18 appropriate or too young?

Izabela Socha | photo editor
isocha@smcvt.edu

Since the implementation of the 1984 law that raised the national drinking age to 21, debates have surrounded the decision. Many support the present national drinking age, saying it has helped combat underage fatalities and alcohol abuse. Others say it has brought underage drinking underground and has only made binge drinking and abuse worse among younger Americans.

McCardell’s proposal

There are numerous opinions about the drinking age, all concerning the wellbeing of young Americans. President Emeritus of Middlebury College and current Professor, John McCardell, is in support of lowering the drinking age back to 18. McCardell says he has always been “concerned about the difficulties that legal age 21 creates on college campuses and the great gap between both what the law sought to accomplish and what its actual effects on campus have been.”

President Emeritus and Professor of Middlebury College, John McCardell is campaigning to lower the drinking age back to 18 years of age. (photo courtesy of Middlebury College)

In a 2004 op-ed McCardell wrote for the New York Times, he publicly announced his support to lower the drinking age. After the essay was published, McCardell says he “was heartened by the vast majority of comments that were positive and support which agreed with me and said the law has had many consequences and many of those consequences are unintended.”

As a result of the positive comments and a research proposal McCardell submitted, The Robertson Foundation gave Middlebury College a grant, to prepare a white paper on the effects of the current drinking age. After the white paper was finished, the Robertson Foundation gave McCardell and his team money to start the non-profit “Choose Responsibility” organization. Although much more fundraising had to be organized, McCardell and two former students from Middlebury College will be campaigning all around the country for the next academic year in support of this newly formed organization.

McCardell says it is also important to distinguish that this organization is in no way sustained or run by Middlebury College and that the organization will run out of a private office space. The only connection to Middlebury is that McCardell will be teaching a course there during the next year, and the two former students participating on his team are recent graduates.

The main objective of “Choose Responsbility” is to provide extensive alcohol education and to build back trust between young Americans, parents and authority figures.

McCardell’s proposition is to lower the drinking age. He would try to implement education courses and alcohol licenses, comparable to drivers education courses.

“We don’t have a problem with underage driving. I think that’s because individuals take care to learn the rules of the road to work under the supervision of the parents to achieve a license,” McCardell says.

With the extensive support McCardell received after his New York Times essay, he is looking forward to the next year of his campaign.

“I am pretty confident we will be able to enlist a large amount of supporters, students and their families and the public at large. I think this is a conversation and it is a debate whose time has come,” says McCardell.

The organization hopes to get enough support nationwide, so that students will feel compelled to create their own “Choose Responsibility” chapters on college campuses and communities.

21 saves lives

Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a national advocacy organization which strives to prevent underage drinking. McCardell does not support some of the reasons MADD uses as its defense to keep the drinking age at 21.

Misty Moyse, director of media relations for MADD, says that one of the reasons the drinking age should stay at 21 is because it is a proven fact that a person does not completely develop until his or her early 20s. Drinking earlier than 21 years of age can cause permanent damage to a person’s physical, mental and psychological development, she says.

McCardell believes this argument contradicts every other aspect of American society.

“It seems to me that our society has determined that 18-year-olds are mature enough to vote, they’re mature enough to sign contracts, they’re mature enough to put their lives on the line in combat, they’re mature enough to serve on juries, they’re mature enough to do everything else that an adult does,” says McCardell. “On what basis do we think they are not mature enough to use alcohol responsibly? My view is that if you penalize someone, you can expect infantile behavior — but if you treat someone as an adult you can expect adult behavior.”

The MADD 2006 summary of statistics states that, “Since 1980, (the year MADD was founded) alcohol-related traffic fatalities have decreased about 44 percent, from over 30,000 to under 17,000, and MADD has saved over 300,000 lives.”

According to Moyse, the National Academy of Sciences found that "the 21 law helped save nearly 1,000 people each year, and we know that it has made a tremendous impact on reducing fatalities and injuries and other causes that are due to underage drinking.”

Moyse says MADD will be closely monitoring the status of McCardell’s campaign throughout the future of the organization.

Vermont initiates support

According to Marc vanderHeyden, president of St. Michael’s College, John McCardell met with all of the presidents from Vermont’s colleges and universities to discuss the “Choose Responsibility” organization. vanderHeyden did not comment directly on the amount of support given to McCardell but said that not all presidents were in favor of his goals.

“There is a need for further discussion, because every college and university will react differently to this and it’s a very complicated issue because it's not just a policy that is debatable on college campuses, it is one that is debated on the government level,” vanderHeyden says.

vanderHeyden went on to explain that there are major differences between the way private organizations and state institutions function and that makes initiation of any new programs extremely complex as well. He also says that although he admires McCardell for taking steps to address this major problem in our nation, he does not know if colleges and universities are prepared for this action because it is evident many students binge drink before they come to college.

Even though vanderHeyden does not think lowering the drinking age will make a difference in the amount students binge drink, he believes this organization may change the mindset of students about responsible drinking before they enter college campuses.

“We will eventually have to come to a discussion in our country whether or not we get rid of the age limitation altogether and push the responsibility back into the hands of the parents and families,” says vanderHeyden. “There are some serious implications to all of this that really need to be debated and this is just the very beginning of this discussion.”