Binge Drinking and Jam
There was a good article in Time magazine about binge drinking on college campuses in the US. As background to my non-US readers, let me provide a brief history of drinking legislation.
Prohibition was introduced in 1920, and repealed in 1933. Prohibition of course, was one of the major reasons for the rapid growth of the mafia. I blogged about that some time ago.
The legal age to drink was initially set at 21.
Following large scale youth movement during the Vietnam War, the voting age was reduced to 18 on March 10,1971. The legal age for drinking was also reduced to 18 shortly.
In 1984, following intense lobbying by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), the legal drinking age was increased to 21.
MADD and the NTHSA claim that setting the 21 year minimum, rather than 18 saved 917 lives in 2002. No explanation is provided on how this was calculated.
Of course, setting the drinking age at 21 means that college students cannot drink legally until their final year. And thus branded "illegal" becomes immediately extremely tempting to every college student.
Typically, on Friday and Saturday nights, underage students congregate at the off campus home of a 21+ year old and binge drink before heading off to parties/bars where they cannot drink.
In 2004, more than 300 students died as a result of excessive alcohol consumption in a very short period of time.
The author of the article points to Canada, where 18 year olds can drink legally. He goes on to say that if the drinking age is reduced to 18, although it might create a temporary increase in consumption, it would quickly level off. Drinking would then occur in supervised public places, in a less hurried manner.
In addition to reducing binge drinking, the money spent on preventing 18 year olds from drinking could be used to prevent drunk people from driving (Regardless of their age).
I agree with the author's recommendation and I do think that consumption will level off and stabilize after the initial few days of euphoria.
This reminds me of a similar incident when I was an undergrad - For breakfast, at the dining hall, we would often have "Bread and Jam" (Jam is the Indian name for Jelly). We would only get a little it of jam - About 1.5 tablespoons full.
One day, the dining hall management decided to do away with the quota system - They just put a huge bowl of jam on the table and let everybody take as much as they wanted. The first day, the starved students went berserk taking 5-6 times the amount of jam they usually got. Within a week however, consumption was back to the old levels when everybody realized got over the initial euphoria ....
Wow, that seems like a long time back, when a spoonful of jam was a big deal !
Prohibition was introduced in 1920, and repealed in 1933. Prohibition of course, was one of the major reasons for the rapid growth of the mafia. I blogged about that some time ago.
The legal age to drink was initially set at 21.
Following large scale youth movement during the Vietnam War, the voting age was reduced to 18 on March 10,1971. The legal age for drinking was also reduced to 18 shortly.
In 1984, following intense lobbying by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), the legal drinking age was increased to 21.
MADD and the NTHSA claim that setting the 21 year minimum, rather than 18 saved 917 lives in 2002. No explanation is provided on how this was calculated.
Of course, setting the drinking age at 21 means that college students cannot drink legally until their final year. And thus branded "illegal" becomes immediately extremely tempting to every college student.
Typically, on Friday and Saturday nights, underage students congregate at the off campus home of a 21+ year old and binge drink before heading off to parties/bars where they cannot drink.
In 2004, more than 300 students died as a result of excessive alcohol consumption in a very short period of time.
The author of the article points to Canada, where 18 year olds can drink legally. He goes on to say that if the drinking age is reduced to 18, although it might create a temporary increase in consumption, it would quickly level off. Drinking would then occur in supervised public places, in a less hurried manner.
In addition to reducing binge drinking, the money spent on preventing 18 year olds from drinking could be used to prevent drunk people from driving (Regardless of their age).
I agree with the author's recommendation and I do think that consumption will level off and stabilize after the initial few days of euphoria.
This reminds me of a similar incident when I was an undergrad - For breakfast, at the dining hall, we would often have "Bread and Jam" (Jam is the Indian name for Jelly). We would only get a little it of jam - About 1.5 tablespoons full.
One day, the dining hall management decided to do away with the quota system - They just put a huge bowl of jam on the table and let everybody take as much as they wanted. The first day, the starved students went berserk taking 5-6 times the amount of jam they usually got. Within a week however, consumption was back to the old levels when everybody realized got over the initial euphoria ....
Wow, that seems like a long time back, when a spoonful of jam was a big deal !
Comments