Amethyst Initiative
Zenia Brink - September 4, 2008
A new movement started by presidents of various colleges across the country has sparked a controversial national debate. The Amethyst Initiative is a petition that has gained over one hundred signatories of college presidents calling for the rethinking of the legal drinking age. They want to open discussion on the current drinking age because, according to their mission statement, β A culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking' β" often conducted off-campus β" has developed.β
The Amethyst Initiative was first drafted by John McCardell Jr., former President of Middlebury College and founder of the non-profit organization Choose Responsibility, which also advocates rethinking the 21 legal drinking age. Choose Responsibility feels that through education and licensing youth can be taught and rewarded for responsible use of alcohol.
College presidents see a growing problem with binge-drinking, especially off campus where they have no control or authority over their students. Binge drinking is defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as, βa pattern of drinking that brings a person's blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and women consume 4 or more drinks in about 2 hours.β With binge drinking can come dire consequences, not only the risk of death from alcohol poisoning or accident, but also unintentional injuries, sexual assault, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, and drunk driving.
It is the risk of increased drunk driving that has one of the Amethyst Initiative's biggest opponents, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) most concerned. MADD fears that if the legal drinking age is lowered, the number of drunk-driving related deaths will increase. The website http://www.madd.org, states, β Since the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law (MLDA) was enacted in 1984, an estimated 25,000 lives have been saved.β MADD also cites research by the CDC that, βA 21 minimum drinking age decreases fatalities by 16 percent.β MADD argues that drunk-driving among younger age groups has been on the decline, since MLDA came into effect.
MADD agrees that binge drinking is a serious problem. A figure among the resources on their website states that for college students between the ages of 18-24, β 1,700 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.β They go on to cite β599,000 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol.β The Amethyst Initiative in turn, does not deny that drunk-driving is also a serious problem, not to be ignored. They too publish figures that show a decline in drunk-driving related fatalities, but they feel that there are numerous contributing factors to this decline, not just the increased drinking age but also advanced safety features in vehicles, and stricter law enforcement.
Here's where it starts to become much more complicated. First, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, passed in 1984, does not make 21 the legal drinking age. There is no law that states 21 is the legal drinking age. What the National Minimum Drinking Age Act does is it imposes a penalty, 10% of state federal highway appropriation, to any state that has a drinking age lower than 21. In 2009 the act will be before Congress for reauthorization. The Amethyst Initiative believes that if it was not for this Act, meaningful debate on the drinking age issue could occur.
Confusing the issues further are figures found on the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov). The CDC state that, βAbout 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.β But they also state that, βAbout 75 % of the alcohol consumed by adults in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.β and β[...] 70 % of binge drinking episodes involve adults over age 25 years.β And finally, βThe proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18-to-20-year-old group (51%).β A recent study done by The University of Texas-Austin found that college students are celebrating their birthdays with an average of 12 drinks for men, 9 for women. They also discovered 12 of 152 students in an in-depth anylasis found 12 had 21 or more drinks on their birthday. It is clear that binge drinking is most serious among under age drinkers, but at the same time it shows that binge drinking is a problem that goes beyond college students.
Both sides agree that there are serious problems involving youth and alcohol. Binge-drinking and drunk-driving are two issues that need serious examination and prompt solutions. And while both sides can see the problems, they disagree on how to fix them. MADD fears that lowering the drinking age will put many more lives at risk on and off the roads, but the Amethyst Initiative fears if the current solutions remain, the problems will only get worse, not better. While the Amethyst Initiative advocates lowering the drinking age, it is not their only objective. They see a series of resolutions need to be made to curb the trend of binge-drinking β" education, and licensing among them. They see the first step towards a new solution is by doing away with the MLDA. Many states have already considered lowering the drinking age, but many others cannot afforded to lose their 10% highway funding.
Obviously the solution or solutions are not crystal clear; what is clear is that there are numerous alcohol related problems, not only among the youth, but across the board. Careful examination's, and thoughtful discussion needs to occur. If bickering and attacks occur, it becomes that much more difficult to come to rational, and insightful conclusions. Perhaps it is not that either side is wrong or right, but that each has solutions, that alone may not work, but combined could prove to be effective. Whatever happens, we'll keep you posted here on Beer Drinker's Guide To Colorado. And please remember to always drink responsibly.
For more information and to view arguments from both sides of the issue check out these websites: Amethyst Initiative | MADD | Opposing Views
