Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A short note on the drinking age
Glenn Reynolds notes that there is more chatter about lowering the drinking age to 18, and pronounces himself in favor of it. As it happens, I have an amusing drinking age anecdote, plus, of course, an opinion. Both were set forth here in some detail.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Aug 19, 11:29:00 PM:
Iowa is a different sort of place than anywhere I've been. Lots of people with a great deal of common sense. For years, second in SAT scores to South Dakota. In some sense, it's the perfect place for participatory democracy - big enough so there are actual communities (contra, Wyoming) but not so big that people feel lost in the shuffle - well, completely lost in the shuffle. And folks are pretty grounded.
While it has a better football team than in the 1970s, Volcker killed off a lot of the small businesses that used to be the backbone of the state. It's therefore a different place than it was. Less wealth, more evangelical, larger farms, fewer businesses in its many small towns, etc.
As it would happen, however, when I was back there this weekend, at a hospital in Des Moines, a 16 year old had just died on Sunday morning after a Saturday night car accident. The tragedy was palpable, as the friends and family sobbed outside the ICU where I was visiting. Automobile deaths per capita are extremely low and lower than when we were growing up, and the speed limit was at 55 (which caused a significant fall off). I never did like the idea of not allowing voters to drink, on prnciple, but the effects on automobile deaths and maiming are undeniable. In practice, college kids can get alcohol and teens in high school have a much harder time than in the 1970s. I rarely like this type of utilitarian argument, but I think it carries the day here.
By the way, Iowa remains the fairest place I have ever been.
By 
Donna B., at
Thu Aug 21, 09:09:00 AM:
My youngest graduated from HS (in Louisiana) in 2000. Believe me, she had no problem getting her hands on alcohol if she wanted to.
I was very fortunate that she didn't want to very often and that her friends had made a pact to always have a sober driver -- thankfully they kept that pact.
On her 21st birthday, she called me from college (in Virginia) to tell me she'd just had her first LEGAL drink. From the background noise, it was quite a party. I didn't have to worry about any of them driving home drunk, just walking home drunk.
Myself, I had a fake ID at age 18 in Texas. Looking back now, I can't believe anybody fell for it, but they did.
My point is that young people are going to drink, they seem to be able to find a way to buy the booze and then sneak around and drink it.
At least if the legal age were lowered to 18, a lot of the sneaking could be eliminated and much more of the drinking would be supervised.
I really do think it would cut down on binging.
