Published: August 19, 2008 11:41 pm         

Age-old dispute: Defining fact and fiction a big part of alcohol debate

Let the debate begin.

With presidents from 100 colleges or universities getting together to call on lawmakers to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18, we can expect a vocal round of rhetoric to be unleashed from all sides of the debate on just what is the appropriate age for a person to legally consume alcohol.

Presidents from universities, such as Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling their movement the Amethyst Initiative to provoke a national debate about the drinking age. These college and university presidents say the law as it stands now isn’t working and is contributing to a high number of college-age binge drinking deaths.

A recent Associated Press analysis of federal records found 157 college-age people, ages 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005. The college presidents say the age group for which the law is intended believes it is “unjust and discriminatory” and students, by and large, are ignoring the law and drinking clandestinely.

One of the main arguments is people who reach 18 are considered legal adults in every way other than being able to legally consume alcohol.

However, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers — the main catalyst behind encouraging a national de-facto law by denying federal highway money to states who don’t have a 21 law — has statistics that show raising the drinking age has reduced drunk-driving deaths. A survey of research from the U.S. and other countries by the Centers of Disease Control back up those statistics.

We know there will be several agendas pursued if we actually do undergo a national dialogue on this issue. It will be the job of the news media — and the lawmakers and their staffs — to determine the facts from fiction in this debate. And, a big part of this debate should address the culture of alcohol that for some reason has been fostered in the United States but doesn’t seem to be as big a problem in other countries.