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Wikipedia / Amethyst Initiative

The Amethyst Initiative is an organization made up of U.S. college presidents and chancellors that, in July 2008, launched a movement calling for the reconsideration of U.S. legal drinking age, particularly the minimum age of 21.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 requires all US states to raise their minimum age for purchase and public possession of alcohol to 21 or face a reduction in highway funds under the Federal-Aid Highway Act.

Background

The Amethyst Initiative was initiated by John McCardell, founder of Choose Responsibility, a former professor of history at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont and current Vice-Chancellor of Sewanee: The University of the South, and is currently supported by 136 college presidents who signed a statement proclaiming, "It’s time to rethink the drinking age".

The idea of the organization's name came from a Greek and Roman legend, that amethysts protected their owners from drunkenness.

Purpose

The Amethyst Initiative states that, in their experience as university presidents, they have observed, "Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students," and therefore they urge lawmakers "to invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adultss to make responsible decisions about alcohol".

Gustavus Adolphus College President Jack R. Ohle said in a statement that the initiative is not about lowering the drinking age, but to open a debate on alcohol policies that affect young people and their choices about alcohol use.

Statement

The Amethyst Initiative states the following:

Signatories

Signatories of the initiative include:

Public reaction

The initiative's proposal has been criticized by several groups and government and industry officials, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Joining MADD's criticism are other groups, including the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the American Medical Association, and the National Transportation Safety Board. A spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association told The Washington Post that university leaders "are really just punting on the issue and leaving the high school principals to deal with it." However, Amethyst Initiative's parent organization, Choose Responsibility, proposes that only high school graduates should be eligible.

In a press release, MADD argues that lowering the drinking age would result in greater numbers of fatal automobile accidents, and that the presidents are "looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem" and "misrepresenting science." MADD cited former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, and current University of Miami president Donna Shalala statement that "maintaining the legal drinking age at 21 is a socially and medically sound policy that helps parents, schools and law enforcement protect our youth from the potentially life-threatening effects of underage drinking."

In addition, MADD debates that: "minimum drinking ages have saved approximately 25,000 lives", "[l]owering the age will cause even younger people to begin drinking", and that "[b]inge drinking on college campuses should be combated with stricter enforcement of current laws."

Choose Responsibility argues that scientific evidence supports the Amethyst Initiative's views and goals, and refutes some of MADD's past claims. Sanford Ungar, president of Goucher College and signee of the initiative argues that opponents should not fear because the Amethyst Initiative is about opening up the debate to improve alcohol policy. He brings about the misconception that they want to "polarize" the issue at hand, but instead wishes to find a better alternative to the current drinking age.

Radley Balko, of Reason, wryly noted inconsistency in opponents' arguments and supporting evidence against the Amethyst Initiative in that they believe that it "would be a "national tragedy" to, for example, allow 19- and 20-year-old men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to have a beer in celebration of completing their tours of duty." Balko, also, noting research showing that underage drinking laws had not reduced highway deaths.

In November 2008, the Student Senate at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse rejected a proposal to urge that university's chancellor to sign the Amethyst Initiative. Supposedly the first such attempt by a student body to ask a president or chancellor to sign on, the measure at UW–L was defeated 14–19 after three weeks' debate. Chancellor Joe Gow said this vote, "certainly defies the 'conventional wisdom' regarding young people being eager to lower the drinking age."

In 2014, a pair of researchers published a literature review in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs of studies on the effect of the drinking age in response to the Amethyst Initiative; the review indicates support for the drinking age remaining at 21.

See also

References