The Observer Newspapers | Old Enough to Vote, Old Enough to Drink

August 29 , 2008

Old Enough to Vote, Old Enough to Drink

The world opens up to children when they turn 18. By most measures, 18-year-olds are considered adults.

When you turn 18, you may marry. You may divorce. You may join the military and participate in combat. If you are accused of a crime you will face adult charges, and if found guilty you will face adult sentences served in adult prisons. You may serve on a jury, including a jury considering applying the death penalty in the event of a conviction.

If you are 18 years old in Virginia, however, you may not possess or consume alcohol.

A group of 129 university and college presidents have signed onto a proposal to reconsider the national drinking age of 21 under the notion that the law has resulted in more binge drinking and has not resulted in a reduction in drinking by young people.

The presidents say underage drinking is growing on campuses nationwide despite myriad programs designed to turn students away from alcohol and despite criminal and university penalties for underage drinking.

About 85 percent of 20-year-olds in America reported drinking alcohol in 2005, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the federal government. Two out of five reported binge drinking—consuming five or more drinks at a time—within the previous month.

It has always perplexed me that we allow our young people to handle a great deal of responsibility in some respects but not in others. As a result, high school graduates often encounter a world they are not accustomed to when they enter college or enter the workforce.

When I was a senior in high school, for example, students were forbidden from leaving campus for lunch, and I always found that to be kind of silly. There was no expectation that a student would show good judgment and return to school for his next class, just an assumption that no good could come from a 17-year-old out on the town in the middle of the day.

Critics of changing the drinking age have assailed the notion that this would be an item open for discussion, saying that the drinking age of 21 saves thousands of lives each year by keeping alcohol away from the reach of young people who make rash decisions.

But there is a discussion to be had about whether we as a society should expect our 18-year-olds to behave responsibly, or whether we should simply remove all temptation and therefore they will have no recourse other than to behave responsibly.

And there is a debate to be had about when a young person is an adult, and when he is not. It disturbs me greatly whenever I read that a teenager who committed some crime is charged as an adult at age 15 or 16 and sentenced as an adult to life in prison.

It has been noted, as this debate has gained steam in the past few weeks, that 18-year-olds could vote to change the drinking laws, but they can't drink. If 18 is the measure by which every other aspect of society recognizes a person as an adult, then why should it not be so with drinking alcohol?

And if 21 is the age at which we feel young people are best equipped to start drinking alcohol, isn't that the age at which they should be able to join the military and serve in combat, or choose a senator, or marry and divorce?

I think our 18-year-olds deserve to be treated as adults. This does not mean I endorse drinking and driving, fighting, or any other bad behavior. Rather, I believe that the more we expect of our young people, the more they will rise to meet our expectations.