With the Fourth of July holiday here, many people will be grilling ? and drinking. Some of those people will be underage.
America has been largely misinformed on underage drinking. In the 1990s, The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) released a startling press statement: “Children Drink 25 Percent of Alcohol Consumed in the U.S.”
CASA?s statistics on alcohol consumption by the young were then repeated by CNN, Reuters and the Associated Press.
Whether the present age limit of 21 helps or hinders the situation has been debated since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 (which, contrary to popular belief, did not prohibit underage drinking but instead set a minimum age on purchase and possession). Since then, CASA?s purported “underage drinking epidemic” has colored the debate.
The problem with the 25 percent statistic is that underage drinkers “comprise only 13 percent of the population,” wrote David J. Hanson, professor emeritus of Sociology at the State University of New York, in a response to CASA.
“So how could they possibly consume ?twice their share,? especially when some are only 12 years old?” asked Hanson.
CASA inflated the statistic by over-sampling while claiming that the numbers came from a survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The agency has since issued a statement that the actual number was 11.4 percent, half of CASA?s percentage.
Whoops.
Having clarified that there is not, in fact, an underage epidemic sweeping college campuses, the real question is one of alcohol responsibility. Of age or under age, some abuse alcohol while others responsibly enjoy it. So where do you draw the line?
As a college student, it surprises me that my freshmen friends can go to war, or as professor Hanson adds, “marry, vote, adopt children, own and drive automobiles, have abortions, enter into legally binding contracts, operate businesses, purchase or even perform in pornography, give legal consent for sexual intercourse, fly airplanes, hold public office, serve on juries that convict others of murder, hunt wildlife with deadly weapons, be imprisoned, [or] be executed.” But they can?t have a drink.
It strikes me as a non sequitur.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act technically left underage drinking decisions to the states, many of which do not explicitly prohibit underage drinking, but instead put restrictions on it (a common requirement is that a member of the family must be present). Essentially, the idea of a “21 minimum legal drinking age for America” is a myth.
The fact that underage drinking is legal within the home is important. It “may help teach [teenagers] responsible drinking habits or extinguish some of the ?novelty? or ?excitement? of drinking,” according to Dr. Kristie Long Foley of the School of Medicine at Wake Forest University.
“Those societies and cultural groups with very high rates of drinking but very low rates of alcohol-related problems have certain common keys to success,” writes Hanson. “One such protective key is that in such groups young people learn about moderate drinking from their parents and they do so from an early age.”
I am a college student who drinks with her friends, and who never drank with her parents. I remember being confused by the drinking environment: people binged, passed out, or rode emotional roller coasters. If kids haven?t been exposed to any other environment, quite naturally they assume that is the norm.
We have a law in place that is supposed to prevent all of these problems. But in reality, it doesn?t. Shouldn?t our legislators pay less attention to the numbers (which can be wrong), and more attention to the alcohol education kids receive? Educational programs that connect moderation and responsibility to alcohol will help prevent misuse, not an age-limit.
Kristin Deasy, a Baltimore Examiner intern, is a senior at Gonzaga University, where she is pursuing a degree in journalism with minors in philosophy and music. Contact her at [email protected].
