Thursday, January 2, 2025

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

Much to consider in debate on lowering the drinking age

With an master’s degree in communication from MSU, I have been interested in The State News coverage about the possibility of lowering the drinking age to 18.

The Amethyst Initiative, calling for “an informed and dispassionate debate” on lowering the drinking age has been signed by 129 college presidents.

To put this in perspective, this represents barely 2 percent of the nation’s more than 4,000 colleges, and includes the president of only one Michigan school, Saginaw Valley State University.

Half of the colleges were concentrated in six Northeastern states. Ohio State University was the only Big Ten school to sign on, and throughout the rest of the country, support was minimal among the rest of the 29 states with signers.

Even in liberal California, only six presidents signed up, with major schools such as University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California saying they wanted nothing to do with the campaign.

The State News raised the argument that if 18-year-olds can serve in the military, they should be able to buy a beer. The same logic that was used in the early 1970s, resulting in Michigan’s lowering its drinking age.

By 1978, 18-to-20 year olds were involved in so many alcohol related auto crashes, voters amended the state’s constitution to return the drinking age to 21.

This has been the legal age in all 50 states now since the 1990s, but military bases have sometimes made an exception to allow 18-year-olds to legally drink on the base, an experiment that has been less than successful.

One of the nation’s largest military bases, Fort Bliss in Texas, recently raised its drinking age from 18 to 21, bringing 17,000 soldiers at Fort Bliss in line with what has been Texas law since 1986.

The commanding general cited the increased number of fights and drunken driving arrests as the reason for his ruling.

In the drinking age debate, we should all keep in mind that any change will not come from college presidents, but from lawmakers across the nation, and they will be influenced by public opinion among voters.

The most recent public opinion poll by Nationwide Insurance reported that 72 percent of Americans think lowering the drinking age is a bad idea, believing it would make alcohol more accessible to minors, and nearly half believed it would increase binge drinking among teenagers.

As The State News reports on the campaign to lower Michigan’s drinking age, in the interest of fair and balanced coverage, I trust that the issues mentioned here will be included.

Robert Hammond

1960 MSU graduate

Lansing resident

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Much to consider in debate on lowering the drinking age” on social media.