Drinking teenagers/adults

Some Minnesota lawmakers have proposed bringing the legal drinking age to 18. To do so would threaten 10% of the federal highway funds to the state and create a political firestorm in a state at the forefront of the prohibition movement a century ago. Some things still haven't changed. Compared to Wisconsin, folks in Minnesota are much more "prudish" when it comes to alcohol, for better or for worse.

This specific proposal would only apply to bars, not liquor stores. The idea is to keep it out in the open and teach healthier drinking habits. Of course, we know that people can still do unsafe drinking in licensed establishments.

Lead sponsor, Rep. Chris DeLaForest, R-Andover, said that since people can serve in the military and get married at 18, they should be able to get a drink or several. "If you're going to give an 18 year old a machine gun, certainly you can trust them to have a cocktail at a bar." (I don't know if beer and guns are necessarily a good combination though.)

I understand the logic of that argument, but it doesn't sound like a winning one. DeLaForest also argues, more persuasively, that we need to teach good drinking habits and points out they drink anyways. "The purpose of the bill is to stop drinking in places like the backseats of cars," DeLaForest said.

Quick aside: It's funny that DeLaForest doesn't take this same view when it comes to sex. He's an abstinence-only guy. Why should I expect consistency from conservative politicians though?

I favor this kind of change. I've long joked that the drinking age should be 16 and driving age at 21. More seriously, there should be more restrictions for teenage drivers. Bumping up the driving age might be a good thing if we were ever able to get decent mass transit in place here. The drinking age at 21 is a fools errand. I hardly drank at all prior to being 21, but I wouldn't describe myself as the norm. At 18, you are legal an adult in just about every other respect. Lots and lots of 18, 19, and 20 year-olds drink alcohol.

The main argument on the other side is that lowering it to 18 makes it easier for even younger people to get alcohol. That is one reason to lower it only for bars and not liquor stores. Allowing young people to drink at 18 might be problematic when it comes to high school senior proms. (You have to imagine a bunch of pre and/or post-prom celebrations will move to the neighborhood bar.) Maybe the starting point shouldn't be during high school. In that case, maybe 19 is a good legal age for bars and lower the age for liquor store purchases to 20.

We need to foster environments that are based in reality and encourage the development of healthy drinking habits. Binge drinking is the way a lot of young people first get introduced to alcohol; and it's behind closed doors. Let's try to introduce drinking to them in the open in bars, where it is less likely to have the dangerous behaviors that all to often end in tragedy.