Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy” – rumored to be said by Ben Franklin

Alcohol occupies a unique position within American culture. No other drug is so universally accepted, and yet so universally stigmatized. Though consumption of alcohol is to be expected, and is frequently encouraged among adults, it is treated by the media, the government, and many special interest groups as entirely demonic until one reaches the age of 21.

Of course, no one can deny the real harm that alcohol can do. Over a long period of consumption, it can decimate your liver. Even more dangerously, the price of a single night’s fun may end up being brain damage – or worse. And deadliest of all is the combination of alcohol and cars, where booze gains the power to harm others as well. Alcohol is a drug, and like any drug, it needs to be treated carefully, and used with caution, or else the results can be fatal.

But, if we have learned anything from the ’20s, it should be that prohibitionary laws do not work. You can try to be as ideological as you like, proclaiming the evils of alcohol from sun-up to sun-down, but at a certain point, the law of the land must have a basis in reality. People in America under the age of 21 drink. This is an established fact. You don’t need to look farther than our own Wash. U. campus to find more evidence of this than you could ever need. In truth, the degree of disconnect between America’s alcohol policy and the real world is simply staggering.

America ought to lower the age to purchase alcohol. By keeping it at 21, America encourages those who do drink underage to do in secret. This is a problem because younger people often do not have experience necessary to be able to drink safely. Such inexperience can lead to horrible consequences, which are magnified by the fear many teens may have of being caught drinking. This fear could plausibly lead to them not taking friends to the hospital when it is vitally necessary. Wash. U. has taken an admirable stance on this subject – if you are going to drink, they request that you do it with the door open. Such realism has greatly increased the safety of inevitable college drinking, and America would be wise to pursue a somewhat similar strategy on the national scale.

In addition, by having 21 as the magic age where alcohol is suddenly okay, it encourages over-consumption in those who do not know how to handle their liquor. If someone who has never drunk before proceeds to get absolutely smashed on their 21st birthday, there are very real safety concerns. A smarter policy would be to phase alcohol in more gradually. For example, many European countries, such as Germany, have the policy that beer may be purchased at 16, and liquor at 18. This helps to ensure that drinkers will be more experienced by the time they are able to purchase liquor, which is more dangerous.

Furthermore, lowering the age of legal consumption would cut down on sales of illegal IDs, which help to fund criminal operations. If a teen only has to wait until he is 16 or 18 to buy alcohol, a fake seems much less economical. He’ll only get a few years of use out of it. However, if he must wait until he is 21, well, that’s three more years of use he can get out of his fake.

Finally, there is the oft-repeated argument that if a teenager can drive, vote, smoke cigarettes, and die for his country, why the hell can’t he buy a beer? The frequency of this argument does not decrease its validity.

I can completely understand why MADD campaigned so hard to increase the national drinking age, because the truth of drunk driving accidents is a sobering one. But the result has been a drinking policy that has little to do with reality. We live in a world where young people drink, and certain events, such as spring break or senior prom, even encourage it. Though we are nowhere near the prohibition of the ’20s, neither should we be forgetting the lessons it taught us. Though it is sometimes painful for us Americans to abandon ideology and legislate with the force of cold logic, it is very necessary in this case.

Tom is a freshman in the School of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

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