The current legal drinking age is not working, according to a statement signed by Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor this summer. She and 127 other higher education leaders joined the Amethyst Initiative, a group calling on the government to rethink the law.

Former Middlebury College President John McCardell created the Amethyst Initiative in July. Its mission statement, released Aug. 19, states that ’21 is not working.’

Cantor stressed that she joined in order to support dialogue about whether or not to lower the drinking age – which has been in effect since 1984 – and said she does not necessarily support lowering it. She wants to see where the discussions will lead.

‘The idea is really to get people across the country talking about how we think about the culture of alcohol,’ Cantor said. ‘We need to get it all on the table and see if there’s a menu of options that would change things.’

The statement released by the group urges government officials to reconsider the federal punishment of highway funding cuts for any state that doesn’t follow the national drinking age. Currently, states can legally set their own drinking ages, but rejecting the national age results in a 10 percent cut of federal highway funding.

‘By choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law,’ the statement reads. It also states that abstinence-only alcohol education ‘has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students.’

Cantor said the energy SU spends on preventing underage drinking and punishing the lawbreakers would be better focused elsewhere.

‘It’s time that institutions of higher education be able to really spend time on the education programs, not on policing programs,’ Cantor said. ‘That’s really I think the key issue here.’

Local pub owner Jerry Dellas had no objections to the initiative.

‘It doesn’t bother me that they’re thinking of lowering the age,’ said Dellas, co-owner of Faegan’s Cafe & Pub on Crouse Avenue. ‘I kind of agree with it, and it’s not just because I own a restaurant with a license. I kind of believe at 19 when you go off to college, you should be educated enough to know the rights and wrongs from drinking alcohol.’

Both Dellas and the initiative statement also argued that 18 year olds can get married, vote and go to war, but can’t legally have a drink.

Dellas has also seen drinking students become more responsible over the years, he said.

‘I’ve seen students come along and people are acting differently, making sure there’s always a designated driver,’ he said. ‘Education works better, not punishment.’

Julia Mazerov, a freshman advertising major, thinks the drinking age should be lowered, and pointed to Europe as an example.

‘I think the fact that it’s 21 over here encourages dangerous behavior,’ she said. ‘Especially because it makes people a lot more afraid to get help if you’re under 21 and something goes wrong.’

Junior religion major AJ Landau agreed, and said underage drinking is out of control because the illegality carries a stigma.

‘Underage kids make drinking a big deal because it’s illegal,’ he said. ‘But it’s not that special if it’s not illegal.’

Landau said some young adults could handle a lower drinking age and some couldn’t, like people of any age group.

‘There are some people who would just use it as an excuse to get ripped off their minds every night and then there are people who would be mature about it,’ he said. ‘But it would eliminate a lot of hassle.’

Mothers Against Drunk Driving immediately condemned the initiative. MADD President Laura Dean-Mooney recommended parents ‘think twice’ before sending their children to the colleges that signed onto the initiatives and said the higher drinking age has saved 25,000 lives.

The American Medical Association also supports the higher drinking age. According to its page on the minimum legal drinking age, alcohol-related death and injury rates decline when the minimum age is higher. Studies also show that Europeans, who have a lower minimum drinking age, have similar or higher rates of alcohol-related diseases.

Other signatories of the Amethyst Initiative’s statement include Dartmouth College, Duke University, Colgate University, Ohio State University and the University of Massachusetts System.

Despite acknowledging the ineffectiveness of the drinking age limit, Cantor said Operation Prevent, a program aimed at preventing underage drinking in Syracuse through bar raids, will continue.

‘We’ve got to continue to make sure our students are safely obeying the law,’ she said.

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Published on August 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm