Amethyst Initiative — The Future of American Alcohol Consumption?
September 09 2008 / by John Heylin
Category: Culture Year: General Rating: 11 Hot
An interesting piece of news floating around the Internet these days is the creation of the seemingly unbelievable Amethyst Initiative. The group, endorsed by college and university presidents across the nation, aims to bring the drinking age back into the national discourse. “Amethyst Initiative presidents and chancellors call upon elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.” They don’t necessarily call for the outright lowering of the drinking age to 18, but they do say that our current drinking laws just aren’t working. 
While the problems attributed to the current drinking age by the Amethyst Initiative are numerous, what would lowering the drinking age do for our culture of binge-drinking?
For one thing, introducing people to drinking at a younger age would hopefully take away the entertainment of getting drunk. So many college freshmen, amazed that they can go from the home atmosphere of restrictive drinking to unlimited drinking, spend their time treating alcohol like a new amusement park ride. Going to keggers where Natural Light or Pabst Blue Ribbon flows like water (it is water), getting upperclassmen to buy half-gallons of plastic-bottled vodka for mixing with god knows what, and of course getting so drunk people have to carry you home or even the hospital.
The hope is that by informing 18 year-olds about alcohol, as well as letting them experience it in a home or bar setting, the novelty of getting so drunk you can’t see straight would wear off. And while it may not make beer-pong or keg-stands a thing of the past, it may go far in reducing the amount of drinking going on.
To be honest, I never really thought that a movement to lower the drinking age would ever take off. So often people in power are pushed into voting one way in order to keep their seat of power (like voting against the War on Drugs back in the early 80’s). Drinking has gotten so bad that it has forced people to take action as opposed to leaving it up to failed government programs.
An interesting article about the history of the drinking age as well as some other interesting facts can be found over at Mental Floss.
Image: Drunken Monkey (Flickr, CC-Attribution)
Comment Thread (6 Responses)
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I’m not sure lowering the drinking age would make any difference. Kids are still going to be sheltered from alcohol at home and go crazy in college. Plus, the idea of hanging out with a bunch of freshmen at a bar makes me want to tear my hair out.
I wonder if places like France have the same drinking problems even though they start out giving their kids wine at age 13. Maybe in exchange of a decade of binge-drinking we’d be creating a whole generation of alcoholics.
Posted by: martymcfly September 09, 2008
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Arrgghhh! About a decade too late…
Posted by: Alvis Brigis September 09, 2008
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Does it really matter? 18 or 21 is almost the same age. I guess a few people wouldn’t get arrested. Personally I think it should be raised. 18 and 21 is too young for how irresponsible we are at college. Heh.
Posted by: Covus September 10, 2008
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18 is preferable because everyone would get all the irresponsible drinking out of their system before college, when most kids are still at home under (at least some sort of) parental supervision. I think a lot of college alcohol-related accidents and deaths would be averted if kids had had some drinking freedom and experience before their arrival.
At least from my experience in Germany, martymcfly, it seems as though Europeans do have drinking problems, but they’re different. Definitely weren’t as many binge-drinking related issues, even in high school/college settings.
Posted by: Marisa Vitols September 10, 2008
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I think the drinking age should be lowered to 16, or lower, but perhaps with some restrictions like only on Friday and Saturday or only during the day. The best thing to do, would be to somehow introduce it gradually, which is what is successfully done through culture in some European countries. Keeping it taboo until the age of 21 doesn’t help at all.
Posted by: Mielle Sullivan September 10, 2008
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It seems to me that there is no real knowledge about alcohol. Kids think that getting wasted is so cool, and they don’t realize how much of an ass their being in those wasted situations.
Posted by: christinep October 13, 2008
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