University presidents want to lower legal drinking age


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Nearly 100 college presidents are asking lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. The list includes well-known schools like Duke and Ohio State, and smaller colleges like Salt Lake's own Westminster College.

It's called the Amethyst Initiative, and its main objective is to encourage debate about our drinking age. While some of the college presidents on this list do want the age lowered, others, like the Westminster College president, say they want to keep it at 21 but continue discussion.

The group that started this initiative says it's been too long since legislators looked at drinking age laws. In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which takes away highway funds to any state setting its drinking age lower than 21.

The statement the college presidents signed does not call for a younger drinking age, but it does say that age 21 is not working and that serious debate among our elected representatives is necessary.

Michael Bassis, president of Westminster College, said, "I'm not advocating a change in the drinking age in Utah or any other place, I am advocating a serious dialogue."

But the group Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) says lowering the drinking age would increase fatal car crashes and lead to much wider spread alcoholism.

Art Brown, president of MADD, said, "Underage drinking, binge drinking is a problem everywhere, but certainly as a base for the dialogue, you want to keep the law because it simply saves lives."

University presidents want to lower legal drinking age

Brown says people are at a higher risk of addiction under the age of 21. Also, their brain is still developing, and they're more deadly behind the wheel. "Those are three big reasons why we need to keep the law while we address the binge drinking in other ways," he said.

According to the Associated Press, 157 college-aged people drank themselves to death from 1999 to 2005.The initiative leader says college students will drink regardless of rules, but they do so more dangerously when it's illegal.

Brown adds the idea to lower the legal drinking age isn't new. He says, "The 18-to-21 dialogue has been going on for some time across the country. MADD is opposed to it, the law has saved thousands of lives."

Brown says there are more than 50 scientific studies that show drunk drivers are actually more dangerous if they're under the age of 21, no matter the blood alcohol content.

College students we spoke to had mixed reactions. Rue Van Dyke, a senior at Westminster, said, "It's like you have this line at 21, and all of a sudden boom, it's like, you can drink, it's legal. Now what? I mean, people, kids don't know how to handle it. I think the same thing could possibly happen if it was at 18."

Linsy Brickell, a college junior, said, "As far as 18, when students just come into college, leaving their parents for the fist time, they're now living on campus on their own, I don't necessarily think that they have enough life experience to handle the responsibility to drink."

Brown points out that alcohol abuse often begins well before college, so mom and dad hold the keys to preventing the problem.

E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
E-mail: ngonzales @ksl.com

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