Lowering Drinking Age May Fix Drinking Problems

Conservative columnist takes libertarian position

George Will, one of the great political minds of our time, points out some alcohol facts:

Studies indicate that the number of college students who drink is slightly smaller than it was 10 years ago, largely because of increased interest in healthful living. But in the majority who choose to drink, there have been increases of "binge drinking" and other excesses. Hospitalizations of 18- to 20-year-olds for alcohol poisoning have risen in those 10 years.

This, John McCardell [president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont and a professor of history there] believes, is partly because the drinking age of 21 has moved drinking to settings away from parental instruction and supervision. Among college students, drinking has gone "off campus and underground," increasing risks while decreasing institutions' abilities to manage the risks. ...

Students may not care about McCardell's cause because they have little trouble finding fake IDs or getting older friends to purchase their alcohol. His strongest argument, however, may be that delaying legal drinking until 21 merely delays tragedies that might be prevented with earlier instruction in temperance. The age that has the most drunken driving fatalities? Twenty-one.

My opinion? Make marijuana legal first, and then nobody will care about drinking... over or under 21.