W&L alumnus leading an effort
to lower drinking age nationwide
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| Washington and Lee alumnus John M. McCardell, Jr. argues that universities should teach students how to drink responsibly, as opposed to prohibiting them from drinking altogether. (TOBY TALBOT / AP Photo) |
More than 20 years ago, during the Reagan administration, Congress passed a law raising the drinking age to 21.
Now, Washington and Lee University alumnus John M. McCardell Jr. is part of an organization working to lower that requirement again to 18. The group, Choose Responsibility, aims to create a system where drinking "learner permits" are issued to those aged 18 to 20.
"The time has come for a change in the culture of young-adult drinking in America today," said McCardell.
McCardell sat down with W&L's Dean of Students, Dawn Watkins, and Lexington Police Chief Steve Crowder recently to discuss the legal drinking age. McCardell said he is trying to get as many opinions about the issue as he can – and he turned to Crowder for some answers.
Crowder was out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment by the Rockbridge Report.
Watkins said she supports McCardell, a former president of Middlebury College in Vermont.
"The majority of high school seniors are coming to college already using alcohol," she said. But when the university tries to promote programs about safe drinking habits, she said, administrators hear from parents.
"When we try to address this problem, and we say that drinking is going on, we get reprimanded," said Watkins.
Following a 2004 op-ed column in The New York Times, McCardell was approached by the Robertson Foundation, a foundation interested in investigating the consequences of the 21-year-old drinking age.
Since then McCardell and a team of assistants have completed a report and received additional money to start Choose Responsibility.
The organization aims to change the drinking age by publicizing negative effects of a higher age requirement.
"It's one of those topics that's difficult to talk about because of MADD's influence in the 1980s," said Watkins.
The drinking age was changed in the 1980s after heavy lobbying by the advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Founded by a woman whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, MADD was a powerful influence in Washington in the '80s and '90s.
In1982, President Reagan established the Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving (PCDD). The commission established 39 recommendations to curb what it called a drunk-driving epidemic. Taken together, the recommendations were intended to be a comprehensive approach with a goal of reducing the number of alcohol-related deaths on the nation's highways.
Instead, 38 of those recommendations fell by the wayside. One stuck: the higher drinking age.
Researcher David Hanson, of the State University of New York at Potsdam, works to debunk what he says are statistical myths from MADD's campaign. One MADD board member estimated 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related incidents, a statistic Hanson said is false.
USA Today analyzed college student deaths in the United States for a five-year period beginning in 2000. The study found that only 25 to 36 U.S. college students die each year in alcohol-related incidents.
Watkins said the university struggles with the balance of teaching responsibility to younger students while upholding laws restricting the drinking age.
Because kids aren't supposed to be drinking yet, some parents believe the university should tell the students not to drink instead of how to drink responsibly.
McCardell wants to change that.
He said fewer young people are drinking with the higher legal age, but those who choose to drink are drinking more. He said he believes parents are removed from the process of teaching responsibility to their children with a higher age requirement, and that the drinking age breeds disrespect for law.
By engaging in conversation with Crowder, McCardell hopes to gain the perspective of a local college town law enforcement agency, he said.
3/30/07: Guest speaker McCardell asks "Why 21?" when it comes to the drinking age
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