CAMPUS

Promote responsible alcohol consumption, not prohibition

It is important to note that under current laws drinking responsibly has been made more difficult.  If you are 18-20 years old you cannot legally have a glass of wine with your parents during dinner and you cannot go to a bar with friends for one beer in the afternoon.  The law is unreasonable in that it denies a right with little reason.  Since this law is disobeyed en mass by young adults, it undermines basic respect for the law.  Lowering the drinking age is the only reasonable remedy.

 Also, if young adults are introduced by parents and other adults to alcohol as something to be enjoyed in moderation, as is the case in other countries, the current culture of binge drinking would be challenged and respect for the law would be bolstered.  Prohibition does not work, ever.  What prohibition does do, time and again, is contribute to a criminalize class and a dangerous subculture which would otherwise not exist.

Education is certainly a step towards moderating behavior, but never eliminating certain behavior .  I would point to education campaigns against cigarettes.  The use rates may have declined, and smokers are aware that their decision may lead to lung cancer and other fatal diseases, but yet there are still smokers.  And there are many young smokers.  So education may have some benefit, but cannot be seen as a remedy to the current issue of ‘underage’ drinking.  I would also point out that alcohol, in comparison to cigarettes, has no significant health affects if consumed in moderation.  There is no need to education people out of consuming alcohol.  Such an ‘education’ campaign could be seen as nothing other than ill-informed propaganda.

I would dispute the notion that either police forces or school authorities do little to punish 18-20 year old adults who drink alcohol.  My college, William and Mary, is a relatively tame and study-focused campus, yet 10% of students face sanctions for alcohol consumption annually.  One in fourteen students are apprehended by the campus police each year.  And punishments are no slap on the wrist.  Many are assigned probation, community service, and if sent to court by police much more.  It is inaccurate to say there is insufficient policing.  What I would argue is that there is no need for such policing.  In 20 years it has failed to accomplish the elimination of drinking by the 18-20 year age group.  It has pushed parties off-campus, encouraged irresponsible drinking, and blemished the transcripts of many otherwise law-abiding students.

The answer is not increasing policing or phony eduction aimed to scare 18-20 year old adults of alcohol.  What the answer should be is to lower the drinking age to 18, to encourage parental responsibility in socializing children to alcohol, and to treat adults as full legal citizens.  An innovative proposition to change the law has been made by Choose Responsibility, which was founded by the former president of Middlebury College.  If you would like to consider reasonable alternatives to the current prohibition, here is a link to their website: http://www.chooseresponsibility.org/