How To Curb 'Binge Drinking'?

Scrap the drinking age. Unfortunately the piece is available for subscribers only, but here are the salient points:

-- Mediterranean societies (Italy, Greece, Turkey) "begin socializing children into drinking at an early age."

-- A World Health Organization study "revealed that these Mediterranean countries and Israel had the lowest binge drinking rates among European adolescents."

-- Here in America, children "whose parents introduced drinking to children at home were one-third as likely to binge."

The author, Stanton Peele -- a psychologist, therapist and attorney -- concludes: "Parents who do not introduce children to alcohol in a home setting might be setting them up to become binge drinkers later on."

Yet in many (if not most) states, this is illegal. Politicians have criminalized parental behavior that has been shown to reduce "binge" drinking. What, have they no concern for The Children?!

Let Kids Drink

For whatever reason, the drinking age is suddenly a hot topic.

In calling for it to be lowered, National Review's John Miller notes:

When it comes to alcohol, the United States is more like Indonesia, Mongolia, and Palau than the rest of the world: It is one of just four countries that requires people to be at least 21 years old to buy booze. The only countries with stiffer laws are Islamic ones.

In today's New York Post, George Will discusses the drinking age's unintended consequences:

[John] McCardell, 57, president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont and professor of history there, says alcohol is and always will be "a reality in the lives of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds." Studies indicate that the number of college students who drink is slightly smaller than it was 10 years ago, largely because of increased interest in healthy living. But in the majority who choose to drink, there have been increases of "binge drinking" and other excesses. Hospitalizations of 18- to 20-year-olds for alcohol poisoning have risen in those 10 years.

This is hardly surprising. Back in college, I argued (see pg. 6) that it's just not reasonable to expect teenagers to avoid alcohol. Attempts to use the heavy hand of the law to do so only criminalize behavior that is widespread and normal.

Both Will and Miller interview John McCardell of Choose Responsibility, who makes a number of important points regarding the drinking age's unintended corrosive effects on family bonding, teenagers' respect (or lack thereof) for authority, and the similar dynamic seen today between college administrators and u-21 students.

The rule is simple: Don't treat as children those from whom you expect adult-like behavior.

Sure, We Treat 'Em Like Children, But We Love the Troops!

"The retired New York City Firefighter Flip Mullen tells of an encounter with a 19-year-old soldier named Keith whose only complaint had nothing to do with having lost a leg in Iraq," Michael Daly writes in today's Daily News.

"He said, 'I can't get a drink,'" Mullen recalls.

Keith meant he was considered old enough to go to war but too young to go into a bar or a nightclub. He is among some 5,000 G.I.s who were wounded in Iraq when they were not yet 21. Exactly 550 have been killed before they were of an age to have a legal beer.

The column itself isn't one I'd describe as "strong" or necessarily "worth reading," but the point raised is nonetheless important: How again is it sensible that people as young as 17 can fight and die -- or, as Daly details here, lose limbs -- for their country, but that country treats them as too immature to knock back a couple of cold ones? I'll go ahead and answer that myself. A 21-year-old drinking threshold makes no sense. And politicians who perpetuate it ought to be embarrassed.

The Perils of Being Young in the USA

Miss USA, Tara Conner, drank despite not being 21. Therefore she is an alcoholic and must enter rehab, FoxReno reports:

Donald Trump has chosen not to fire Miss USA Tara Conner amid reports she has visited bars, though she is not yet 21.

"I've always been a believer in second chances -- Tara is a good person," Trump said in a news conference Tuesday. "Tara is going to be given a second chance."

As part of staying on as Miss USA, Conner has agreed to enter rehab.

Trump said, "Until this morning, I didn't know which way it was going to go." But upon meeting her in his office, he said that he saw her "good heart" and that she "got caught up in the whirlwind that all know as New York."

Conner won the title in April and has been living in New York. Recent media accounts of heavy drinking brought a storm of criticism, since she was underage at the time. She turned 21 on Monday.

From the looks of things, Ms. Conner seems to have reached drinking age. Perhaps the problem, then, is with the drinking age, not Ms. Conner?