What About the Drinking Age?

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Reduce College Alcohol “Bingeing”: Lower the Drinking Age

by David J. Hanson, Ph.D.

Lowering the legal drinking age would reduce heavy drinking among college students says former Time magazine editor and White House correspondent Barrett Seaman, who is the author of Binge : What Your College Student Won’t Tell You.

Seaman says that there would be an initial surge of heavy drinking at first as young adults savored their new freedom, but then alcohol abuse would drop. He cites the example of Montreal’s McGill University which enrolls about 2,000 American undergraduates each year. “Many, when they first arrive, go overboard, exploiting their ability to drink legally. But by midterms, when McGill's demanding academic standards must be met, the vast majority have put drinking into its practical place among their priorities.” 1

Flo Tracy has been McGill’s director of housing for 26 years. In preparing for the new school year, she held a training session for about 50 resident advisors. She brought pizza, soft drinks and three cases of beer and told them they could have all they wanted. There was a whole case of beer left over.

Tracy says Quebec's legal drinking age of 18, as opposed to that of 21 in the U.S., is an important reason for the healthier relationship her students have with alcohol beverages. 2 On the other hand, "huge crackdowns, abolishing fraternities, enforcing dry zones -- none of that works" observes Seaman. 3

In researching his book, Seaman interviewed college administrators around the country and says “I did not meet any presidents or deans who felt that the 21-year age minimum helps their efforts to curb the abuse of alcohol on their campuses. Quite the opposite. They thought the law impeded their efforts since it takes away the ability to monitor and supervise drinking activity.” 4

"The thing is, there are smart ways of drinking and there are stupid ways of drinking," Seaman says. "If you can get more people drinking smartly, you're going to have a safer campus." 5

Seaman says that drunken driving can be reduced by following the example of Norway, which throws the book at DWI offenders without regard to age. DWI is DWI.

 

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