So yesterday in my University Studies class, we had a guest speaker. It was the campus's Associate Director of Student's Rights and Responsibilities. For an hour, she basically talked about underage drinking and the statistics of such on our campus. Firstly, it was very boring. I fell asleep a little. Secondly, I was relatively upset by some of her statistics. Not because they were surprising (86% of the campus students have consumed alcohol while only 67% are of legal age), but because some of those statistics were pretty bogus.
Apparently since 1975, and more importantly the enactment of the MLDA and the forcing of all states to comply, twenty thousand lives have been saved. That sounds pretty great, doesn't it? But how can you prove that? How can you say, twenty thousand people would have died if we hadn't done this? You can't. I was quite pleased with one of my fellow students, he asked the speaker how those statistics were gathered. She admitted that they can't attribute each of those twenty thousand lives to the MLDA. So I pause to ask myself, WHY THE HELL SHOW A STAT THAT YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T BACK UP?!
I personally support lowering the drinking age. The fact of the matter is, people are going to drink regardless. Rather than enforcing a throwback to the Prohibition, why can't we teach youth about alcohol and encourage them to drink intelligently rather than saying that abstinence is the only way. Same premise as sex education, teach them safe ways to partake in these normal activities. I think that we should make the age for everything 18. Drinking, driving, voting, everything. Encourage use of public transportation. I would be willing to wager that it's a LOT more common for people to drink underage than for people to drive without a license. If you don't have a license, you don't need a car. If you don't have a car, you can't drive drunk.
Let's take a look at the UK for a minute. It's a lot more difficult to obtain a license there. The punishments for abusing your license are much stiffer. So perhaps we should try that, how about? Instead of clogging the legal system with twenty year olds having a beer, encourage them to have A beer. Let law enforcement focus on serious offenses. Basically, let kids be kids and adults be adults. Hypocrisy is shown so clearly by the fact that we are adults at the age of 18, and yet we still don't have all of our rights. You're not an adult if you are still being restricted because of your age (unless you are thirty and trying to cry Senior Discount!).
I'm done with the rant. You are free to go.
Apparently since 1975, and more importantly the enactment of the MLDA and the forcing of all states to comply, twenty thousand lives have been saved. That sounds pretty great, doesn't it? But how can you prove that? How can you say, twenty thousand people would have died if we hadn't done this? You can't. I was quite pleased with one of my fellow students, he asked the speaker how those statistics were gathered. She admitted that they can't attribute each of those twenty thousand lives to the MLDA. So I pause to ask myself, WHY THE HELL SHOW A STAT THAT YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T BACK UP?!
I personally support lowering the drinking age. The fact of the matter is, people are going to drink regardless. Rather than enforcing a throwback to the Prohibition, why can't we teach youth about alcohol and encourage them to drink intelligently rather than saying that abstinence is the only way. Same premise as sex education, teach them safe ways to partake in these normal activities. I think that we should make the age for everything 18. Drinking, driving, voting, everything. Encourage use of public transportation. I would be willing to wager that it's a LOT more common for people to drink underage than for people to drive without a license. If you don't have a license, you don't need a car. If you don't have a car, you can't drive drunk.
Let's take a look at the UK for a minute. It's a lot more difficult to obtain a license there. The punishments for abusing your license are much stiffer. So perhaps we should try that, how about? Instead of clogging the legal system with twenty year olds having a beer, encourage them to have A beer. Let law enforcement focus on serious offenses. Basically, let kids be kids and adults be adults. Hypocrisy is shown so clearly by the fact that we are adults at the age of 18, and yet we still don't have all of our rights. You're not an adult if you are still being restricted because of your age (unless you are thirty and trying to cry Senior Discount!).
I'm done with the rant. You are free to go.
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