Another Voice / Teenage drinking
Law has reduced drinking and alcohol-linked deaths
Updated: 09/24/08 7:04 AM
In response to the article published in The Buffalo News on Sept. 17 about college officials’ opinions on lowering the drinking age, the Erie County Council for the Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse firmly opposes efforts to reduce the minimum legal drinking age. An immense amount of research shows the positive effects that the current age of 21 has had on health and safety.
Many arguments are made to lower the drinking age. Some reason that since 18-year-olds can vote or go to war, why shouldn’t they be able to drink alcohol legally? The reason is clear: When the drinking age was lowered to 18 in the 1970s, significant increases in alcohol- related crashes involving youth ages 18 to 21 resulted.
Therefore, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the National Uniform Drinking Age 21 Act. The change helped to decrease fatal crashes by 59 percent between 1982 and 1998, saving thousands of lives in the process. In addition, a 1998 study showed 10 years after the age was raised to 21 in New York, 58 percent of people 18, 19 and 20 reported reduced drinking, while impaired driving rates decreased.
Some argue that drinking is a harmless rite of passage. This is frightening since research indicates that the brain is not fully developed in many humans until about age 25. During this time, it is very susceptible to the adverse affects of all types of drugs, including alcohol.
Studies on brain development in adolescents show that the brain reacts differently to alcohol than an “adult” brain. According to the American Medical Association, it actually takes less alcohol for a teenager to get drunk than it does for an adult in his 20s. In addition, a teenager’s liver can process only about half as much as an adult’s liver before suffering harmful effects.
Underage drinking is also related to numerous health problems including injuries and deaths resulting from alcohol poisoning, car crashes, suicides, homicide, assaults, drowning and recreational accidents. It has been estimated to cost at least $62 billion annually.
Some argue that European countries with lower drinking ages foster responsible drinking. However, no evidence exists to show that lowering the drinking age will help youth learn to drink responsibly. American adolescents show lower prevalence rates for binge drinking than most European countries in a recent European study.
Communities, colleges and parents need to take responsibility and determine ways to create safer environments for our children and students. Lowering the drinking age is not the way to effectively do that. We need to work together to change norms that find “tailgating” synonymous with binge drinking.
We need to work with bars to discourage deeply discounted drinks and two-for-one specials. Working together, we can address college alcohol use and develop safer “norms” for our future generations.
Andrea J. Wanat is executive director of the Erie County Council for the Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse.
