Letter to the Editor: Choose Responsibility
To the Editor:
I have been a member of Choose Responsibility [CR] for over a year now, and I think that what they are doing is great. CR is not just proposing a random decrease in the drinking age to 18. Instead, they are proposing an alcohol “licensing” plan that will require people between the ages of 18 and 20 to take alcohol education courses before they can get their “license” to drink responsibly.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed from lobbying from Mothers Against Drunk Driving because they claimed that a higher drinking age would decrease deaths related to drinking and driving-it had nothing to do with alcohol effects on the brain. (Ironically MADD made this proposal at a time when cases of drinking and driving deaths were going down anyway.) There has been a limited amount of research that has been conducted on the effects of alcohol on the brain before the age of 21 in the United States because any research would be illegal, and we know that excessive drinking is bad for health at any age. Sometimes people argue that the drinking age should be 21 when they don’t realize why it was raised in the first place. If someone is between the ages of 18 and 20 is drinking and not driving, why should they get punished when the 21 year old drinking age was not intended for them?
Also, in some states consumption of alcohol is not explicitly illegal. Possession and purchase of alcohol is illegal, but there are several exceptions to the 21 year old consumption law.
Ivy Biswas
University of Indianapolis student
