Forbes: Drunk Female Guests Gravest Threat to Fraternaties

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by Alpha O

No one is going to change the drinking age before the drinking culture in this country changes. It may seem like a "chicken and egg" thing, but at this point there are tangible benefits to having the drinking age set at 21. At the root of all of this is an unhealthy culture with regards to alcohol. No administration in their right mind would mess with changing the drinking age if the root problem of an unhealthy relationship with alcohol persists. If there are going to be any changes in the drinking age, this will need to be preceded by changes in the drinking culture, specifically young adults learning about responsible behavior toward alcohol before college and demonstrating that they are responsible enough to warrant changing the laws.

I agree that I would love to see more parents teach their children about responsible alcohol consumption in the home, but I think culture change is much more effective when organizations, schools and governments can coherently enact policies and programs that encourage moderate drinking and strongly discourage heavy drinking.

Originally Posted by Alpha O

According to the NIH, drunk-driving accidents have dropped by 50 percent since the law was passed. The greatest proportion of this decline was among 16 to 20 year olds: approximately 37 percent of traffic fatalities in this age group were alcohol related in 2013 compared to more than 75 percent in the 1970s.

This is actually a perfect example of what I was just talking about - it often requires a lot of work from many directions in order to affect desired change. I think this quote is misleading, because the entire nation was in the midst of cracking down on drunk driving in multiple ways. The drinking age law was passed in 1981, but MADD was founded in 1980 - which action can you credit the most with that 50% decline in drunk driving? What about heavy national crack-downs on drunk driving, including increased penalties for DUIs and regular police checkpoints? What about the mass media coverage and ad campaigns that really demonized drunk driving in our culture? What about programs that offer free taxis or other rides on big holidays or events? What about amnesty programs that allow underage drinkers a free pass to call in for those free rides or to report illegal activity?