Stephen Colbert Interviews John McCardell about Lowering the Legal Drinking Age
Last summer I blogged about how the presidents of more than 100 colleges and universities asked lawmakers to consider lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. Then this month, comedian Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s satirical news show “The Colbert Report” interviewed the man leading the charge. John McCardell, the former President of Middlebury College, believes the current drinking age drives young adults to consume alcohol out of public view, putting them at greater risk.
Watch the clip (05:45) and tell me what you think. Do you agree with McCardell that the drinking age should be lowered to 18? Or do you think this would be a gigantic mistake?
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| John McCardell | ||||
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Update: July 1, 2009
Just came across this very interesting New York Times article stating that drinking among young adults under 21 has decreased greatly in recent years…except for those in college. A 27-year-old study shows that men between the ages of 18-20 who don’t attend college binge drink 30% less than they did when the study first began — but there’s been absolutely no statistical change in 18- to 20-year-old men who do attend a university! So perhaps its the college lifestyle — not the high legal drinking age — that’s causing so many young people to binge. Thoughts?
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It’s important to understand the new brain development research as a part of this overall discussion. As reported by NIAAA, half of all alcoholics are addicted to alcohol by age 21 and 2/3 by age 25. Alcoholism is a young person’s disease…something we did not understand until relatively recently - thanks to this new capability to study the brain. This link provides a brief overview:
http://www.breakingthecycles.com/blog/2009/02/14/teen-brain-development-and-alcohol/
I completely agree. Kids 12+ will get f***ed up no matter what the drinking age is. The reason there is so many kids in the hospital and have died from alcohol poisoning is because they have to be secretive about it which means that there will no one there to look out for them and make sure they don’t drink too much. He is thinking of their safety first. And 18 is a totally legitimate drinking age. If you can go to war you should be able to by some damn booze.
I’m not sure that lowering the drinking age would make that great of a difference in terms of exacerbating the issue of underage drinking and/or alcoholism. I do, however, think that issues with drinking alcohol begin at home. Parents need to be held responsible initially.
I don’t think it matters what the legal drinking age is. If a kid wants to drink, they are going to drink. No matter what.
Lowering the age to 18 increases the availability of alcohol in the high schools. The seniors will buy it for the undergrads.
The military does not want drunks at the helm of any weaponry.
And clandestine drinking will not diminish because of legality.