This was the first article that I read for my English paper. This article told about the Amethyst Initiative, a petition to lower the legal drinking age, but also about why research shows that this may not be the solution to our problems.
Margaret
Mrs. Zurkowski
Purples
24 September 2010
Underage Binge Drinking
Gathering Information-Notes
Main, Carla T. "Underage Drinking and the Drinking Age." Policy Review. Jun/Jul 2009: 33-46. SIRS Researcher. Web. 22 Sep 2010.
· The Amethyst Initiative- a petition signed by many college students and professors to lower the legal drinking age to 18, or at least make some exceptions
· It claims that with the drinking age at 18, binge drinking will severely decline because the allure of illegality will be gone
BUT
· In the military and in places where it is legal for them to drink, 14 to 18 year olds “guzzle apace”
· “Fifteen percent of all 18-to-25-year-olds binge drink.”
· Some claim that college drinking is so common anyway, that it has already lost all intrigue
· On average, 1,400 college students die alcohol-related death and 1,100 of these deaths are from drinking and driving
· Drinking normally doesn’t start in college.
o 1/3 of America’s youth have their first drink before 13
o Many of these children have established drinking patterns by 8th to 10th grade
· “Among college students, 80 percent reported drinking, and of those 40 percent binge drink once a month.”
OTHER FACTS
o Binge drinking (generally five drinks or more) brings the blood alcohol to
about 0.08 gram percent.
o “…violates criminal laws to drive with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 gram
percent or above.”
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