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Hey Teen, Want a Beer? Expert Says Lower the Drinking Age
Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, In The News, Alcohol & Drugs, Behavior: Teens
President Ronald Reagan signs legislation raising the national drinking age to 21 during a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden, July 1984. Credit: AP
18 and never been kissed. But sloshed? Abso..hic...lutely!
Dr. Morris E. Chafetz thinks the drinking age is too high.
An ironic statement coming from someone who was on the presidential commission that recommended raising the drinking age back in 1984.According to the Los Angeles Times, Chafetz made the pronouncement in an op-ed piece he's shopping around. He reportedly gave a copy to the group Choose Responsibility, dedicated to lowering the drinking age.
"To be sure, drunk driving fatalities are lower than they were in 1982. But they are lower in all age groups. And they have declined just as much in Canada, where the age is 18 or 19, as they have in the United States," Chafetz wrote.
But can the good doctor trust those numbers? Much of his writing concerns how, "politicians, corporations and the media use statistics to manipulate the public," which is the subtitle of his book, "Big Fat Liars."
Nonetheless, Chafetz claims the heightened drinking age has escalated "collaterol, off-road damage" such as binge drinking, date rape, assault and property crimes.
The commission Chafetz served on led to a law that required states to raise their drinking ages to 21 or lose a portion of the money they received from federal highway funds. President Ronald Reagan signed the law July 17, 1984.
Chafetz told the Times that the 25th anniversary of the law inspired his opinion piece. He called his decision on the drinking age, "the single most regrettable decision" of his career.
He also thinks global warming is a myth and, as is this business about Americans being too fat, according to his website.
Bottoms up, Doctor.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
7-30-2009 @ 12:41PM
maria said...What needs to be changed is the drinking age, the voting age and the age you can join the military. I cannot believe that someone can join the Army, fight and perhaps be killed for our country, and not buy a beer. If the drinking age is 21, so should the age to join the military - and vote for that matter. We should be consistent on when you are considered an adult with adult responsibilities and priviledges.
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7-30-2009 @ 8:28PM
thanatos said...That was the excuse given to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 - 'we're old enough to drink and fight...'
7-30-2009 @ 7:05PM
rebecca said...If they guy is old enough to join army then he or she is old enough to drink.......
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7-30-2009 @ 10:54PM
boots said...They should raise the enlistment age to 21, also. Does anyone really think an 18 yr old is mature enough to make the decision to risk his very life?
Oh, and it's "bottoms up" not "bottom's up."
7-31-2009 @ 6:31AM
Abbi said...The thing is I'm a teenager. And I know that some teens are just drinking cause the government won't let us. And with the way the laws are teens who want to drink have to have keggers in the woods and drive home. And I look at other countries without high drinking ages and they have virtually no problems and place that do have tons.
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7-31-2009 @ 7:45AM
Lisa said...As for the drinking age, it should go back to be 18. I firmly believe that the main reason we see so much binge drinking and that nonsense with the young is because we have made alcohol into some "forbidden fruit."
We, as Americans, still hold such puritanical views in regard to things like sex and alcohol that we twist them into things that hold far more importance than they should.
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7-31-2009 @ 8:22AM
momma bear said...This is so worrisome. I came of age when the drinking age was 18/19. I remember clearly driving over the state line to drink and then being drivien home by some very young, drunk drivers. So many kids were killed this way. I now am the mom of an 18 year old. He has been driving for one year. I cannot imagine adding even a drop of alcohol to this mix. It is hard to know what is the right answer.
8-01-2009 @ 11:06AM
Kirstie said...The thing is, momma bear - just because he and his peers aren't legally old enough to drink, doesn't mean they wouldn't be drinking - and drinking and driving - regardless. I'm not too far out of high school myself (I'll be a junior in college in the fall), and while I knew better than to get behind the wheel if I'd had a drink, or in the car with someone who had, I knew plenty of people who simply didn't care or didn't think about it at 17, and there were plenty of drunk driving accidents involving people below the legal drinking age when I was in HS. The drinking age doesn't make much of a difference in regards to whether or not they have the ability to drive drunk.
Personally, I think that if at 18 a teenager could start drinking a beer casually with dinner, or in the backyard, with their family before they go off to the unsupervised madhouse that is a college dorm, they'd be more likely to learn self restraint and their own limits, and we'd see less college freshman with alcohol poisoning falling all over themselves. My own parents never had a problem at 17 or 18 letting me have a beer on the deck with them while we played a game, or a glass of wine with dinner on a special occasion. It took the exciting rebelliousness out of it, and when I was a freshman in college I was more often than not the mom of our group of friends.
8-02-2009 @ 10:23AM
Heidi said...congratulations. what does that have to do with the drinking age?
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8-13-2009 @ 4:03PM
Shirley said...People who are 21 and over are not responsible enough to not drink and drive so what makes anyone think someone under the age of 21 will be any more responsible. The one thing we should be working toward is raising the voting and the age you can fight in a war. Going into the military right after high school is necessary for some people because they would be doing nothing if they do not go to college.
There are very few responsible teens out there and it should be a personal choice for you as a parent to allow your teen to drink at home prior to 21. I do not condone under age drinking and I am against drinking and driving 110 percent. Two things to remember your choice of drinking and driving can change your or someone elses life forever in a New York minute and who do you think you are to take someone elses life into your hands.
Until we all begin to make wise decisions about alcohol the drinking age is just fine. You need to be able to make the right decision not to binge drink or go hog wild crazy when you go college or anywhere else in this world.
Parents it is our responsibility to give our children the values that will shape their lifves to be viable citizens and to use their judgement to make wise decisions. The responsibility lies with in you as a parent. Talk to your kids about everthing from friends, chioces, consequenses, sex, drugs and drinking. If you don't know about things or how to talk to your child get outside help.
Your children are and investment the day they arrive in this world you should began investing in them and try to make them better people than you are.
Bottom Line Chioces/Consequences
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8-27-2009 @ 2:02PM
rachel said...well I am a teenager, and personally I do not drink, but when I do its cause the fact that i cannot drink. If I were allowed to drink I prolly would never drink. If it were legal it would just make it less exciting to get waisted because of the fact that there would be no rebellion there. I do however, smoke. The fact that it's illegal for me to smoke made me WANT to do it EVEN MORE. And because I was doing it behind my parents back it gave it that rush of getting caught and knowing it was illegal. It just gives it so much more excitement because of the fact that it IS illegal. A year later my mom started smoking with me and soon it just made me mad because the only reason i did this was rebellion. It really makes me wanna quit cause now theres no rebellion or fun to it anymore. So I think it would be the same way with alcohol. If you were allowed to have a beer or whatever with your dinner, im pretty sure people would have more self-control, and all of the partying in college, would seise. Not completely but I think there would be more self-control there. If it were legal there would be no fun, rebellion or any other reason to get waisted cause it would be something you are allowed to do. Like everyone else said..If you can go to the military, smoke, and vote at 18, then why not drink? I just don't see the point in it. Teens are going to do it anyway no matter how much the parents don't want you to, and try. Trust me. I know lots of parents who think they're child is an angel and i know the real them, even though you may think you do. The point that I am trying to get at is teens are going to drink whether adults try and stop us or not. I just think if they lowered the age it would teach teens self-control and responsibilty. Then they wouldnt wanna drink and party cause it is allowed and theres no rebellion to it.
9-16-2009 @ 7:50PM
Caitlin said...Shirley,
You say that the drinking age should be 21 and in the same message claim that it is most importantly a parent's responsibility to teach good values and decision making. If those values are instilled, there should not be a problem with a drinking age of 18.
Here is the thing. I am 20 years old and I don't drink. But in high school and college, I have seen what the high drinking age does to my peers. It becomes a game. It's a thrill to hide alcohol, to con a vendor into selling it to you, to drink as much of it as you can while you have it available to you. When students enter college these days, a large part of most orientations is the discussion of the seductiveness of alcohol and how to deal with it. So much of students' time is devoted to their obsession with drinking. Most college students do not turn 21 until their junior or senior year. This means they enter the party atmosphere two or three years before they can legally partake in it.
If the drinking age were 18, students would be better prepared for college life and less tempted to engage in binge drinking, because there is no feeling of not knowing when they can next attain more beer, vodka, rum, etc. You know how animals will overeat, even though they're full, if their food supply is threatened? Yeah.
Also, to those who fear this will cause kids to start drinking in their earlier teens, when kids are under 18, their parents are responsible for them. It (theoretically) should be easier to keep high schoolers from engaging in unsafe drinking behaviors than it is with college kids.
For the record, an overwhelming number of college presidents, including my own, share my view on this matter.
Now to address the part that most offends me: like I said before, I am 20 years old. I voted in 2007 and 2008, including primaries. I followed the presidential election very carefully and care deeply about my country and its direction. I can work, marry, be tried as an adult, join the army, have a child, have my name revealed in news stories, buy porn and tobacco, register and drive a car, etc., but you don't want me to be allowed to vote?
If I died tomorrow, the paper would refer to me as a "woman." Treat adults like irresponsible children and see how they act. Oh wait, that's what we do.
8-25-2009 @ 7:30PM
Emma said...Something I've noticed while traveling in Europe is that there isn't such a national (or continental) consciousness where alcohol is concerned. Yes, they drink alcohol, sometimes more than the average American. However, most children are exposed to alcohol at a much younger age and grow up feeling that alcohol isn't a big deal. They don't make a big deal of going out and getting drunk, so teen drinking isn't as much of a problem. If this were the case in the US, we would probably have fewer problems as well. And with that said, a person who can legally vote, fight in a war, get married, move out, and buy a gun should be able to go out and have a beer if they want one.
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8-25-2009 @ 10:05PM
maddy said...i believe that the drinking age should been lowered. i'm from Dominican Republic and there you are allowed to drink at a young age i mean they don't really care but when i go there i see the difference in things. Here in the US teens have to hide that they drink so they go to small get togethers, parties where there's going to be alcohol, have bonfires in the woods, and wait til their parents are out of town and find a way to get alcohol. We are going to find a way to get it no matter what the law is okay we could get in trouble for it if we are caught but we do it anyway. It not being allowed just makes us go out to find what we want which in the long run is bad because your going to have to drive there or even walk which is also dangerous.Just because you put the law makes us want to drink even more because we want to be rebels, experiment and go crazy not saying that because of that reason drugs should be allowed because that's over the line and you'll find more teens that drink under age than do drugs.If way comfortable that my mother does understand this and she would rather know that i drink then have me do it behind her back. It's a great thought that he has come up with and it should be taken into consideration. Either way teens are going to drink if they want to. They would take that risk to do something forbidden and whether it's this generation or the ones for way back even they future ones teens are always going to be like this.
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9-03-2009 @ 1:04AM
Chelsea said...At 18 we are entrusted with the decision of what to do after high school. It could be college, military, work, or nothing. I picked college. Now after that decision is made I had to make the decision of what college I want to spend the next 4 years at, and what I wanted to major in that would eventually lead to a degree that would define what I would be doing for the rest of my life....
You know what would have made that decision a lot easier? A little Captain Silver and Vanilla Coke.
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9-05-2009 @ 5:28PM
Together said...I agree with maria. I think all the age limits she mentioned should be 21. Young adults get mixed messages about what it means to be an adult from the way society has set them up. Smoking an alcohol are simply bad for your brain cells and there is research to prove that the damage is greater in bodies that are less than 25 years of age while the brain is still going through developmental stages.
Also, I hope all HS Juniors and Seniors as well as Freshman College students realize that legal violations like these can damage their chances for (or cause them to loose) financial aid and scholarships for college as it states on the web stie www.collegeprocessmadeeasy.com
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9-10-2009 @ 9:20AM
Benz said...If you ask me i think that if anything that they should higher the age. I been drinking since I can remember 20 yrs of living. And even though there are people who are mature enough to handle the product there are even more that can not. i witness more car accident from drinking where i from next to the whole texting while driving. i crazy i lost 2 cousin 3 good friends because someone hit them from being intoxicated. If you lower the age i gureentee that there will more then likely that those younger then 18 will increase in drinking.
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