When I first got to college, I was 18 years old, just barely out of my parents’ house, had graduated high school two months previously, and was a snot-nosed, bratty smartass (I know, you find this difficult to believe, but it’s true). Johns Hopkins was filled with all sorts of smart kids who were away from home for the first time, and we all had one thing in common: we were all off the chain! Crazy. We got our first taste of freedom. NO parents. NO truant officer calling our house from school reporting on our absence from class. If we wanted to go to class, we went. If we wanted to skip class, we did. If we wanted to grab a beer, we grabbed one…
Whoa! Wait a minute! Where would a bunch of 18 year olds get beer? After all, it was illegal for us to imbibe, and we always followed the rules! Yeah… and rabid monkeys might fly out of my ass on national television.
I spent the my freshman year at Hopkins skipping class, getting as drunk as I possibly could, as often as I possibly could. Why? Because I knew that tomorrow I may not be able to get booze. I knew that there was always a chance that my 21 year old friends would have something better to do than go out and buy me alcohol. I knew that I was being naughty by drinking, and it was fun. And I knew that I was never allowed to consume that much booze while living in my parents’ house, so I had the forbidden fruit, and I was going to savor it!
Drugs were illegal back then too, as they are now. So I wonder how my roommate would get wacked out on acid every other night and lay on the floor watching the pretty lights, or how my theater geek friends procured pot to smoke after a performance (No, I didn’t try any. I was one of those dorks who would sit in the circle and sheepishly pass the joint to the next person without puffing. I never liked the smell, and my parents scared me off drugs when I was eight years old.)
So what have we learned from my college experience?
- Kids will get booze if they want it. It’s not that difficult.
- Kids will binge drink, because they know it’s the forbidden fruit, and they might not get any the next day.
- Prohibition never works.
So apparently, a bunch of college administrators have decided that the national drinking age is stupid, and they want a debate. I agree. At 18, I’m old enough to vote, I’m old enough to pay taxes, I’m old enough to give consent in a sexual situation and I’m old enough to pick up a rifle and fight for my country in the Armed Forces. But I’m not old enough to have a beer?
SCREW YOU!
Well, enter Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris is an exceptional martial artist. Too bad Chuck Norris is not just a fundamentalist retard, he’s also a preachy, self-righteous nitwit.
Leading the pack with this so-called Amethyst Initiative is John McCardell, who challenged Vermont in 2005 by saying in the New York Times, “The 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law.” McCardell recently added,“All the data show that by the time students go to college they have already experienced alcohol, so how can anyone say the law is working?” So is the remedy lowering the drinking age to accommodate juvenile jugging? Do we really think giving young people, who are anxious to experience life outside the boundaries and rules of home, the right to drink will aid their and society’s progress?
Yeah, actually we do, Chuckie. It will no longer be taboo. They’ll know they’ll be able to have a glass of wine with dinner or a bottle of beer in their rooms without having to gorge and binge. And when it’s no longer taboo, it’s no longer interesting to abuse it. What is it that makes a 21 year old more deserving of having a beer than an 18 year old? Both are legal adults.
For the record, the drinking age was established at 21 years of age in 1933 after Prohibition (Yeah, and we all know how well THAT worked at reducing alcohol consumption and illicit activity!). In 1971, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, several states reduced the drinking age too. In 1984, however, with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, all U.S. states were required to return the drinking age to 21. Ever since, alcohol-related fatalities have dropped 56 percent (except for a spike over the last decade). And now 100 college presidents want to raise those lethal statistics even further? As it is, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1,700 college students die annually in alcohol-related deaths, not including the victims also killed in those incidents.
As we all learned in the gun control debate, correlation does not always equal causation, as demonstrated by a spike in alcohol-related fatalities over the past decade, despite the minimum drinking age being 21 provided by Chuckles’ own research. Much like the presence of a gun in the house doesn’t necessarily lead to suicide, being able to take a drink doesn’t necessarily lead to alcohol abuse. Does he honestly believe that an 18 year old person who is legally allowed to have a glass of wine with dinner will necessarily gulp down an entire bottle, while a person three years older will refrain and act more responsibly? Hello, STUPID! Have you learned nothing about young adults? If they can get away with it, they’ll do it! They will push the boundaries of their newly-found independence any way they can. Wouldn’t it make sense to take away at least part of that temptation?
The ONLY way to truly curb drinking in young people is to educate them on the dangers of alcohol abuse. Realistically, honestly, without scare tactics or histrionics. That way when they do have that glass of wine with dinner, it won’t seem as naughty and risque as sneaking a bottle of Jack from mom’s and dad’s liquor cabinet!
Guess what! I’m a BAAAAD mommy! I let the Redhead have a sip of beer every so often. I let the Teeny Bopper have a sip of wine, if she wants a taste. Alcohol is not taboo for them. They know they can have a taste if they desire, and they, quite frankly, have little interest in it (Except in the Redhead’s case, because he’s just like mom, and he loves the shock value of telling self-righteous nitwits he encounters on a daily basis that his mom lets him have beer. It’s not so much that he likes drinking it, he just likes bragging that he can!)
So apparently, making alcohol legal for someone who is old enough to screw, vote, work, pay taxes and go to war is “enabling” illicit behavior. And today’s youth is apparently not smart enough to make intelligent decisions.
We must do and believe better for the Millennial generation those
ages 18 to 29 than to merely increase their legalization to guzzle
gin or beer bong. On the contrary, we must equip them to positively
change our country and world, not restrict them by enabling their
illicit behaviors. Empowering the younger generation is why I committed
an entire chapter to them in my new (Sept. 7 release) book, “Black Belt Patriotism.” (I guarantee that one answer you won’t find in it to reawaken America is lowering the drinking age!)
Of course, not! Because reawakening the spirit of innovation, change, courage and empowerment is not about teaching them to overcome adversity, make correct choices in their lives and taking responsibility for their own action. It’s about making shit illegal and scaring today’s youth into behaving with threats of arrest and destruction of their record merely for daring to take a drink.
In other words, Chuck Norris is a douchebag.
Aug 26, 2008 @ 00:16:14
Well I came of age in the great state of Virginia. And at that time 18 was the drinking age for beer. Liquor was 21. It was that year that they changed the law to all 21, but I was “grandfathered” for the beer reg. Wouldnt have slowed me down a bit one way or the other. I had been living on my own since I was 15 (all legal I was emancipated by the court) so I had no impediments to any of my desired behaviors. I think 18 should be old enough to purchase beer and wine. Im not o sure about liqour, but I definetly think that if you possess a military ID you should be able to drink whatever the damn well you please.
Aug 26, 2008 @ 01:06:01
Troy, liquor, wine, beer… whatever. You can’t tell me that someone under 21 can’t purchase any of those regardless of what the law says! So what if an 18 year old wants to sip a Jack on the rocks on a summer night. Big deal! Prohibition doesn’t work. We see it in the drug war, and we saw it during the 20′s. Rather than make a criminal out of any 18 year old wanting to buy a drink, make it less taboo and quit ruining their records and perhaps their lives.
Aug 26, 2008 @ 01:51:07
I finished growing up in Oklahoma. For most of that time Ok. was a dry state. The bootleggers and moonshiners were the largest contributors to the churches, especially all the different variations of the Baptist church who unfailingly launched massive attacks against any alcoholic beverage sales bills in the state legislature for anything except 3.2% beer.I started drinking heavily at 15, between then and 18 years of age, liquor stores were authorized. Made booze a whole lot harder to get, but not impossible. To drink hard liquor at any commercial establishment it had to be a private club, memberships available at the door. Bring your own bottle, turn it into the bartender, then buy it back by the drink. supposedly one was paying for the set-up. But if one was drinking it neat, the charge per drink was the same.At 17, I started buying my whiskey at the liguor store and was never carded until 4 days after I turned 21. Never forget it! Preston looked at my ID, looked at me and said “You little prick”. Then he laughed.He had assumed I was a grown man due to some difficulties I had had with several men he knew to be grown and I had won. Don’t know why he eventually decided to card me, unless it was because I had been away for a while and he didn’t recognize me right off.Anyway the point is, I never had much trouble getting booze when I wanted it. When I was in my midteens, I binge drank, for just the reasons Nicki stated. When I realized I could have it when I wanted it, my drinking may have kept a similar total of consumption or not, I don’t really know, but I do know that it was spread out over more time since I didn’t feel I had to drink all I wanted at one time, just in case. I still drink whiskey, I love it. It is to me what chocolate is to some. I never get drunk, though my typing may not be evidence of such. For 48 years I have been drinking alcohol more or less steadily unless there were reasons not to do so. I have never had a problem putting it down, for any amount of time necessary. Can’t say I would be in the same place if it was still prohibited to me.The fact that it was in my control was important in that transition from binge to civilized.
Aug 26, 2008 @ 02:13:45
Hmmm. “A spike over the last decade.” The drinking age was changed in 1984. That’s, let’s see… 24 years. 2.4 decades.The “spike” has been almost HALF the time since the age was raised!Somebody doesn’t seem to understand what a “spike” is.
Aug 26, 2008 @ 08:26:23
Guess I should be glad about living in Belgium in this regard.I could drink at 16, my parents wouldn’t object to a glass of wine or a beer, I chose not to for the bigger part because I simply didn’t like most alcoholic drinks back then.Still today, I drink things I like … I like soft merlot, I like cherry beer and I like ammaretto (and no, I am not gay!)Sometimes I find myself drinking more than is healthy for me at age 20, a few months short of 21.A full bottle of wine or a fourpack of beers just might not be good for me. But I know what I’m getting into, and it’s vacation for me now, I stay sober during the schoolyear!But if I’d chose to have a drink in the evening, a shot of ammaretto because I just plain like it, who’s to stop me?
Aug 26, 2008 @ 12:56:43
18 = Adult, Not Jr. Adult. I am really surprised that this issue hasn’t gone to the Supreme Court. It is age discrimination, hence illegal. If you want 21 to be the legal drinking age, you need raise the adult age to 21 –hence 21 to be a soldier, 21 to vote, 21 to go to a real jail, and 21 to pay taxes.
Aug 26, 2008 @ 20:07:42
I have a 16y/o who’s allowed to drink what he wants, whenever he wants within reason (and always with an adult around). To Jase, alcohol is not a forbidden pleasure; it’s part of life, and he’s learned that, as with any rights and/or priviledges, there are responsibilities. I trust him to be responsible in his choices, and he’s never disappointed me.He *did*, however, get the “don’t drink and drive” speech from me when he got a car for his 16th birthday.
Aug 27, 2008 @ 02:07:21
“……and I like ammaretto (and no, I am not gay!)”-Michael HawkinsWish you hadn’t put that picture in my head. I truly like amaretto over (ice). I don’t think I have had one in more than twenty years, but it is a superb libation.
I didn’t know there were gay connotations tied to it. Doesn’t really matter, but I have never heard of it before.
Aug 27, 2008 @ 15:17:23
“If 18 year olds are old enough to serve in the military, pay taxes or vote, they are old enough to drink.” Sounds reasonable at first, but, people, think about it! Just because we entrust 18 year olds with the honor of defending their country, we put it on the same plain as entrusting (enabling?) and possibly impairing the judgment of 18-year olds to drink and possibly put other Americans at risk through alcohol-induced driving and antics?? Even the military has some criteria–not every 18 year old can pass the criteria to enter every branch of service. The military also TRAINS young men and women to handle guns and arsenal in warfare–who’s training the youth to handle the booze??? And we think we can use the same rationale (military defense vs. drinking) to justify a cart blanc legalization for every 18-year olds to drink??? People, we’re talking apples and oranges! Remember, if 100 college presidents get their way to reduce the drinking age to 18, not only do all responsible college students get the ability to guzzle whiskey, so does the irresponsible, dysfunctional-home originated, crack-head or gang member down your street! It’s not about a military man drinking a beer on base, it’s about licensing the 18-year old slot to buy a keg for himself and a case for his 17-year old buddies. Do you really want to give EVERY 18-year old the right and responsibility to get drunk? Chuck is RIGHT ON! And I’m glad he has the balls to say so. Sounds to me some people on this blog are justifying their own desire or position to drink, not thinking about the effects upon others/society civility. Dropping the drinking age is not merely about an 18-year old’s personal responsibility–it’s about an entire society’s safety–and, as Thomas Jefferson concluded, the primary purpose of government is to protect its people.
Aug 28, 2008 @ 00:36:15
Empowering the younger generation is why I committed an entire chapter to them in my new (Sept. 7 release) book, “Black Belt Patriotism.”Wow–he even managed to incorporate a plug for his book into his little rant. At least he can’t be accused of being opposed to capitalism
.
Dec 18, 2009 @ 13:02:15
I wish those responsible with keeping the drinking age at 21 read your post now, I think they would get some relevant answers on lowering the drinking age. Although I work in a suboxone alcohol treatment center I believe that keeping the drinking age at 21 is useless, we have decades behind us to prove that. You are right, if teens want to drink they can easily have it, even if it’s illegal. It’s also a psychological thing, they want it because they know they are not allowed to have it. I am not saying that the drinking age is responsible for the binge drinking rates but I think switching to something else would improve the situation. We should just take a look to the countries that have the legal drinking age at 18, they are the most relevant examples.