Posted on 01/12/2009 8:49:05 PM PST by Coleus
Drew University, like many colleges, is working harder to deter underage drinking, but that didn't stop students younger than 21 from drinking heavily at campus parties Labor Day weekend. "The parties are in dorms, on top of buildings, wherever people find an ample place where they're not going to be bothered," said 18-year-old Dean Shtainhorn of Millburn, who admitted to experimenting with alcohol.
The Madison campus is not unlike colleges across the country dealing with the problem of underage alcohol consumption and binge drinking. That is why Drew University president Robert Weisbuch said he joined the Amethyst Initiative, a national movement by 129 college presidents to "rethink" the drinking age. "When you have a law being widely disobeyed, it's in our interest to have a conversation about it," Weisbuch said.
Weisbuch said he has not concluded that the law should be changed, rather that it should be debated. "We know college students get into private drinking," he said. "We worry this kind of secrecy, aside from creating a hypocritical atmosphere, can encourage binge drinking." What Weisbuch didn't expect was the backlash.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving was outraged. State Attorney General Anne Milgram announced the NJ21 Coalition, a collection of state agencies, law enforcement and nonprofit agencies opposed to lowering the drinking age. Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) was blunt. "This is nothing more than college presidents passing the buck instead of thinking of more constructive ways to crack down," he said. "Furthermore, it opens up the floodgates to allow alcohol into the hands of high school students who are 18."
John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, who spearheaded the movement, said presidents are not shirking their responsibility, but "framing" a debate. "You cannot discuss college drinking and rule the drinking age out of bounds," McCardell said.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.nj.com ...
.....college presidents are a bunch of pussies...and have been since they were emasculated in ‘68....they can’t control their campuses so they blame the drinking laws....lower the age limit and more kids will die....it’s that simple.
I remember I was DD for some of my older fraternity brothers one night driving to a party. I helped carry a couple of coolers to the house from the car, and out of nowhere walked a policewoman who had been watching us from behind a tree. She immediately arrested me and gave me an MIP. When I told her repeatedly that I hadn't been drinking and was DD, she told me to shut up or I'd be taken to jail.
Hopefully, as more people with the same experiences become voters, and start to replace people who grew up when it was 18 and don't care anymore, this stupid policy will change.
*Hopefully, as more people with the same experiences become voters, and start to replace people who grew up when it was 18 and don’t care anymore, this stupid policy will change. *
Yep, let’s just give up and change all kinds of laws simply because no one pays attention to them and enforcing them is hard, anyway.
Not "all kinds of laws", only the ridiculous ones. Look up the 18th Amendment if you need an example.
Any law one doesn’t like is ridiculous.
If you’re not legally old enough to drink, don’t.
If you want to change the law, change it. In the meantime, follow the damn law and if you don’t, quit whining when you are caught breaking it.
Really, all laws are just? People like you gave us the 16th Amendment.
If you want to change the law, change it.
The federal government has taken the choice away from the people, since if a state fails to change the law, they lose out on federal highway money.
This whole policy reeks of federal blackmail and infringement of state sovereignty.
But there's never a shortage of the Puritan patrol to show up and tell people how stupid they are for not supporting the 21 drinking age.
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