Drinking Permits???

I have to admit that when I read this article the idea of the drinking “learner’s permit” made me laugh out loud (and then look around furtively). I thought it was an absolutely absurd idea.

Then I finished the article and Dr. Park started to change my mind. I don’t see how it would work better, but any program that would promote alcohol education is a definite thumbs-up in my book.

Highway Funding

As I search around for news relating to the initiative, I almost always find a comment about the loss of highway funding to states that lower the drinking age. The vast majority of these comments state, or at least imply, that a state will lose all of it’s funding. That is simply not the case.

States who lower the drinking age may lose up to 10 percent of their highway funding. Not all of it. It is still a hit on the budget, but it’s not the entire budget.

The bigger issue is that there is no national law dictating drinking age, yet the federal government is still forcing states into age 21 minimum regardless of how the states feel. Even more unfortunate is that not a whole lot of people realize that this is happening.

Remember the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules.

A Little More News

ABCNews’ Janelle Jolley has an article that *gasp* covers both sides of the issue.  It doesn’t focus on the Missouri initiative only, but it does raise good points both for and against lowering the drinking age.

A Little Opinion

Here is a little opinion piece that brings up some issues with the MO 18 initiative.

True, the initiative is going to cause a few problems when it comes into effect. But what change doesn’t cause other changes? This is an issue that seems like it could be solved with some simple solutions.

The Amendment

Just a copy of the proposed amendment, for those of you who are interested:

Read it here.

European vs. American

Here’s an article from addiction guru Stanford Peele’s website. The article itself is neat–especially Peele’s response to the letter–but I thought the discussion of the drinking age of the UK is more interesting.

When I turned 21 and started going to the bars, I didn’t have enough experience to understand the relationship between food and alcohol. As almost any college student can tell you, that relationship is one that is quickly learned. Unfortunately, it can only be learned the hard way.

If the US had the alcohol education that the UK has, we would have learned much quicker–and easier–that while Domino’s tastes better after the bar, eating before a night out is a far better way to go.

What About the Drinking Age?

Jeff Krantz has an article here. It shows what some European students studying in the US think about the drinking age at 21.

The Initiative

It’s a little superfluous to start this blog now. Either we will get the 100,000 signatures we need to get the initiative on the ballot by May 5th or we won’t. Right now, it’s looking like it’s on the ‘won’t’ side of things. But that doesn’t mean the initiative is dead. Not even close. We’ll be back at it for our chance at 2010.

In case you’re stumbling on this and don’t know what I’m talking about here, I’ll break the movement down into it’s basics.

What it is:

• An initiative to lower the drinking age in Missouri to 18.
• An initiative to give all adults the respect they deserve instead of holding some in reserve until they turn 21.
• An initiative for equality.

What it is not:

• An initiative promoting binge drinking.
• An initiative seeking anarchy.
• An initiative looking to lower the drinking age just because 18 year olds want to drink.

The Journal speaks

Read it here.

It’s a nice little article. Pretty good coverage of both sides of the debate.

It’s from The Journal.