What if the minimum legal drinking age went the way of Prohibition?
Morris Chafetz, the psychiatrist who helped construct the 21-law during the Reagan administration, recently called the legislation “the single most regrettable decision of my entire professional career.”
His words, which appeared online in the Huffington Post, may be tougher than tequila for some college administrators to swallow, however. With countless studies relating alcohol consumption and injuries and death, many are convinced the law serves its purpose.
“Research has also shown the importance of increasing the drinking age due to the development of the brain until the mid-20s and the effect binge drinking has on that development,” said Angela Reams, counseling coordinator for UI Student Health Services and head of the AlcoholEdu program for UI undergraduates.
UI President Sally Mason has kept her signature off the Amethyst Initiative, a national movement launched last August that calls for university and college officials — who tend to invest in fighting binge drinking — to encourage debate about the law.
The Amethyst Initiative has collected 135 signatures from across the country.
“[It is] calling for an open and honest debate about the consequences of the law,” said Nick DeSantis, a staff assistant with Choose Responsibility, a non profit organization that maintains the Amethyst Initiative’s website.
And the discussion will not only affect students, DeSantis said — alcohol-related deaths have been on the rise over the past 10 years. In June, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found the number of drinking-related accidental deaths in the 18- to 24-year-old age group has increased between 1998 and 2005.
While his organization handles large-scale communication for the Amethyst Initiative and fields media requests for the signatories, DeSantis said the two groups hold entirely different goals.
Choose Responsibility is calling for education and licensing for 18- to 20-year-olds to guide them toward responsible consumption. DeSantis compared the program to the concept of “driver’s education.”
The Choose Responsibility’s proposal would allow parents to take a more “meaningful approach,” just as they typically are involved while teenagers work toward their driver’s licenses.
“It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for parents to throw [children] the keys and say ‘good luck,’” DeSantis said.
In his column, Chafetz acknowledged drunk-driving fatalities across all age groups have decreased since 1982, adding he does not believe the older legal age is the reason.
While Amethyst Initiative signatories raise their glasses to Chafetz’s statement, they have no large-scale plan to reach out to presidents of universities and colleges who have not signed, DeSantis said.
Still, he said the group expects more calls in upcoming weeks as students return to school and spark renewed interest in the issue.
