A 62-year-old, gray-haired man with a Ph.D. in economics may not seem like your average advocate of lowering the drinking age, but Philip J. Cook is one of a growing number of college administrators and professors who are pushing to let 18-year-olds drink legally.
Cook, the author of Paying the Tab: The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control and a public policy professor at Duke University, led an open discussion in Van Munching Hall yesterday to a crowd of roughly 20 people on the minimum drinking age and its benefits and drawbacks.
“I support the Amethyst Initiative,” he said, referring to a petition signed by 135 university presidents that urges colleges to study how to combat binge drinking, including reexamining the legal drinking age. “I think it should be left up to the states to decide what the minimum drinking age should be.”
Many of the presidents who signed the Amethyst Initiative, including university President Dan Mote and university system Chancellor Brit Kirwan, say they don’t support lowering the drinking age. However, the man who started it, former Middlebury College President John McCardell, does.
Cook presented studies and data showing the impact the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 has had on decreasing alcohol-related fatalities in youth under the age of 21, but said the effects of the minimum legal drinking age are much smaller than what he presented.
Cook said the minimum drinking age of 21 is the “highest in the world,” adding that a more compelling argument is that the law denies 18- to 21-year-olds a certain freedom.
“We have recognized them as adults in almost every other aspect,” Cook said, referring to 18-year-olds ability to buy cigarettes, enlist in the military and vote. “Yet in this one area we have chosen not to, but to treat them as kids. … When it’s convenient, we call them adults. When it’s not, we don’t.”
He admitted that adolescents are often a rambunctious group even when they’re sober.
Cook brought up possible solutions to the drinking age dilemma, such as allowing 18-year-olds to drink, but creating a zero tolerance law for drinking and driving where 18-to-21-year-olds would have to have a blood alcohol level of .00 to drive. He said he would prefer to see the minimum drinking age reduced to 19 and the tax on alcohol increased.
However, Cook said he does not believe the Amethyst Initiative will accomplish its goals because its plan lacks a solid constituency and has no political traction.
Robert Nelson, a public policy professor at the university and organizer of yesterday’s forum, said we shouldn’t have laws that are basically symbolic of not being taken seriously.
“First of all I think it’s unconstitutional,” Nelson said. “It’s a result of residual prohibitionism.”
Nelson said he is offended by the hypocrisy of trying to enforce a law that is nearly impossible to enforce because it is generally ignored. He thinks a drinking age of 18 makes the most sense.
Scott Livengood, a doctorate student in strategic management, said it ultimately comes down to people handling the responsibility of drinking legally.
“Why tinker with it?,” Livengood asked. “There are enough problems at 21.”
He added that we should teach moderation, instead of excess, to young adults and should look into reducing the negative consequences of underage drinking.
Brad Coppel, a senior finance accounting major, did not attend the forum but agreed with the sentiment that if someone is old enough to hypothetically be drafted, then he or she should be able to “drink a beer.” He also thought increasing drunk driving penalties while reducing the minimum legal drinking age was a good idea.
“I think it would give the ones who are responsible a chance to prove themselves,” Coppel said. He added it might further deter kids who might drink and drive.
Victoria Seng, a junior cell biology and molecular genetics major, said reducing the drinking age wouldn’t make a difference as people who want to drink will always find a way.
“It’s not like I’m drinking more or less now that I’m 21,” Seng said.
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