[DeltAlum]

When I was in college, the drinking age for "low" beer (3.2% alcohol by volume) was 18. The age for anything else was 21.

So, I drank in high school. And figured out ways to get liquor and wine before I was 21.

So, I suspect that if the drinking age were to be lowered, we would be seeing statistics about how many more high schoolers were drinking.

I'm also a little leary about the surveys. How many respondees are truthful? It's "cool" to break the rules when you're a teenager. It certainly isn't difficult to claim that your totally blitzed nightly at age 15 -- even if you've never touched a drop of alcohol. You simply fill in the right spot on the survey.

Back to The Garden of Eden -- whether you believe that story to be fact or fiction -- the way to make people desire something is to forbid them from having it. Remember, an apple a day...oh well.

I think it would be a good idea to allow beer consumption at age 18. A fraternity chapter advisor I know who is also a city attorney agrees. Of course, that's only opinion -- but a somewhat learned one in his case.

By the way, quit whining. Before 1968, you could be drafted, but weren't allowed to vote. And, yes, a whole lot of us were drafted.

Which, of course, brought about some of the neatest signs and bumper stickers, "Draught beer, not students."

Finally, I'll bet a lot of cops would love to see the drinking age changed. I don't think they really want to be bothered busting college students for alcohol violations. I think they'd rather be doing something constructive, and also something at which they have a chance of making a difference.