College Presidents Want To Lower The Drinking Age

This is a good start. More than 100 college presidents want the drinking age lowered to 18.

"Twenty-one is not working," says the group's statement, signed by presidents from prominent colleges such as Dartmouth, Duke and Syracuse. "A culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge drinking' -- often conducted off-campus -- has developed."

No Long Island schools are on the list, which includes Manhattan College in Riverdale, Ohio State, Tufts in Massachusetts and Colgate in upstate Hamilton.

Even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which might include newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they face sharp criticism.[...]
The current law, he said, "pushes drinking into hiding, heightening its risks, including risks from drunken driving, and it prevents us from addressing drinking with students as an issue of responsible choice."

The two sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem, but disagree on whether raising the legal drinking age to 21 has saved lives.

The age at which drunk drivers cause the most accidents and deaths is 21. This is not about drinking and driving. this about laws that will never be obeyed by a segment of society. Laws which cause more harm than good to our society.

If you are legally an adult why can you not choose which beverage you want to drink? Is it even constitutional?

I personally think the drinking age should be 14 for beer and wine and 18 for liquor. Teach kids to drink before you teach them to drive. Let them make alcohol related mistakes before they drive heavy machinery. Yes cars are heavy machines.

Update: Atrios has an interesting idea. Drinking or driving license.

Perhaps they should consider my cunning plan to let 18 year olds have a drinking license or a driver's license but not both, which would have the added benefit of helping my plot to make everyone move to Manhattan increasing the appeal of less car dependent locations.