Everclear And Absinthe For All

Disturbingly enough, I saw this story on the tv this morning at the gym, and once again, I completely lose all faith in humanity. There apparently a growing push to reduce the legal drinking age to 18 all in an effort to reduce binge drinking.

Good holy sweet Mad Dog....are you serious? Let's point out the obvious first, people over the age of 21 can't control binge drinking, inside or outside an educational environment. How in the french toast do you think that increasing the availability of alcohol to people under the age of 21 is going to control drinking?

Apparently a large crux of their argument is that by reducing the age, it reduces a so called "allure" to do it because it's bad. I started drinking when I was 16, and trust me, I wasn't doing it because I wanted to be rebellious. Hell, when I was feeling rebellious, I was stealing toilet paper from the courthouse or watching my friend take a crap down our neighbors chimney. Same argument with illicit drug use. People don't abuse substances because they wanna rebel, they do it because it gives you some form of euphoria you dummies. It's not all about fighting the power when it comes to making dumb choices.

Then I read this gem, and seriously wondered if drug use is more rampant in the US then previously thought.

They propose "drinking licenses" that would allow those 18-21 to drink because they've only been issued after alcohol education. Hmmmm...I'm going to have to disagree with John McCardell in saying that no, education will not work in this case. Look, it's so basic, I seriously wonder if big John ever was 18 years old. At that age, humans are unfit for many tasks involving personal responsibility. Despite the fact that you're of legal age to do many things, this is usually about the time you start getting into more serious trouble because you have more freedom. You dump liquor on top of that, and it's just going to get exponentially worse. Education will not work, because D.A.R.E doesn't work, because sex education generally doesn't work, and because anti-smoking education doesn't work. This will be another giant black hole for tax dollars to get swallowed up in just so colleges can feel like they're reducing their overall liability status for those under the age of 21 who decide it's a great idea to pound a fifth of Old Crow.

Yeah, I get the whole "well, if they're old enough to serve in the military, they should be old enough to drink". I disagree with this for two reasons however...those reasons would be:

1) As an MP, I can't count all of my fingers and toes how many soldiers between the ages of 18 and 21 I had to peel off of the floor of a parked taxi because they were too trashed to get out under their own power. Yeah, they're in the military, but that doesn't mean that they become responsible over night.

2) I would submit that if anything, only those in the military under the age of 21 should be allowed to drink. Reason being, they're learning how to be responsible a lot faster then a civilian of the same age....annnd, if you're going to go to war any time soon, you probably deserve to be tanked out of your gourd at least once.

We're facing the problem of prohibition all over again. What it boils down to is "holding the line" on certain policies. Everyone is content with 21 being the legal drinking age. Those who are able to get it before, that's good. Yes I understand that other countries have lower age limits, but those other countries don't have the good ol' fashioned American "culture of excess" like we do.

The bottom line is that guys and girls alike are uncontrollably dumb and impulsive (for the most part) at 18. By enabling them to either drink, or buy (possibly for those under the age of 18) is absolutely abhorrent. I would predict that DUI's & alcohol related deaths would sky rocket, because that generation is not prepared to handle that kind of responsibility, especially when they're at the most "I'm invincible" phase of their life.

And if you don't believe any of this, then I would only have to fall back on one other argument. The bartenders....they don't want to be concerned with kids under the age of 18 coming in with a fake ID, and they sure as hell don't want to have to worry about babysitting some High Schooler that can't hold their liquor.