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College in Salt Lake City joins initiative on alcohol

He does know there is scientific evidence that brain development is hampered by the consumption of alcohol? He also does know that brains are developing until possibly the age of 23 in some cases?

21 is a good age. As a 23 year old, I can attest that decision making skills aren't fully developed until at least the age of 21 in the average human being.

Why don't they lower it to "0"? Maybe we could eliminate Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in babys born to irresponsible, addicted mothers. After all being responsible for actions seems to be becoming outdated.

I'm an addiction therapist. I IMPLORE all of you, please don't push this! Too many kids already find out that earlier alcohol consumption triggers an addictive response. We don't need more alcoholics, and the "drink responsibly" mantra is insufficient.

Why would anyone with a brain drink alcohol? What single thing has done more to cause human suffering than has drinking alcohol? To drink yourself into a stupor and call it having fun makes me think those who do so, never had any real fun! Why not hit yourself in the head with a hammer every day, the effect is about the same? The human race would be infinately better off never drinking alcohol. Evil and conspiring men in the last days, amen!

As an European citizen, I've been able to have,buy,order and/or give a beer to a friend ever since i can remember. My parents used to send me, as a kid, to the corner shop to buy beer for them during lunch if the beer were to run out. Drinking age has never been enforced and underage drinkers have never been frowned upon. Naturally, kids grow up with no taboo regarding alcohol and learn their limits quickly.
I moved to Florida during my college years and i saw more drunken stupidity and car accidents in my first semester there than i had seen here in my whole life. Keg stands and beer funnels are an ingenious American invention in order for kids-people to get drunk faster and with a lesser quantity of alcohol. Fast drinking is never good, all people know that here in Europe and rarely do it.
After Florida i moved to China. Same story there as here in the EU. Very little problems with drunken raging teenagers.
As a conclusion, I'm NOT advocating drinking. I'm just saying that Europeans and others are not worse off because of the lower drinking age. Yet, we are more mature as teenagers.

this is a good step in the right direction. i dont believe that should be able to legally drink at 18, i would say the lowest we should go is 19 cause most will be out of high school or in college. the current legislation on age limit i believe promotes binge drinking and teaches young people the wrong approach to drinking. if madd wants things to change then they should promote stiffer charges and penalties to drunk drivers ect... and better public transportation. but lets get real, this will never get passed in the USA. other countries around the world have lower drinking ages i to me it seems that they are not binge drinking, but i could be wrong.

Nope. I don't agree with Mr. Bassis. 18 yrs. of age is too young to have it legal for them to be drinking. They are not mature enough! Keep it where it is! In fact I wouldn't mind if it if the legal age was even higher!

The United States has the highest legal drinking age in the world! You can get executed, or decide someone else should die (as part of a jury), but cannot be trusted to drink?

I'm still waiting for my brain to develope.

Don't these college beaurocrats remember what it's like to be 18, 19 or 20? Why didn't they stop to think that every underage college kid is going to use their 5tup1d initiative as justification to drink?

It seems these collegians have joined the breweries in a money making scheme. The NCAA allows beer advertisements for money, and now the schools themselves want part of the action.

Another reason is if they expell a dumb kid for drinking, they loose that tuition and book revenue as well as any donations from mommy and daddy.

Many will say the Europeans don't have drinking problems. Do we want to be like Europeans? Remember, they think blue jeans are fasionable, Jerry Lewis is funny and goat cheese is yummy.

regardless of the motive, lowering the legal drinking age gives the impression of tacit approval. I think other methods of dealing with under-age drinking should be tried. Banning beer ads from college sports, as advocated by 400 major college presidents, athletic directors, and head coaches would be worth trying, but the NCAA is too corrupt to be have to try and replace that revenue.

While the other college presidents in Utah are asking the NCAA to ban alcohol advertising on sports broadcasts, this one wants to lower the drinking age. What a loser of a proposition...it will only encourage more binge drinking on campuses.

I would agree with "Thumbs Down" about lowering the drinking age to 18 years old.

I feel it would be a big mistake.

What rational do these Presidents use to justify their postion?

I grew up in Milwaukee, the beer capital of the country during the 70's. The "favorite" thing to do then for many high school seniors and juniors was to have a "fake" ID card showing that a high school senior or junior who was really 16 or 17 was at least 18, the legal drinking age. This would allow the high school junior or senior to purchase beer, wine, etc.; go to taverns; attend "keggers"; etc. One thing I noticed is that a high school junior or senior could usually manage to look 18, but he or she could seldom look 21. President Bassis is not only reversing the clock among college students but also he is condemning high school juniors and seniors and the people they may hit in a car wreck, etc., to an unnecessary crippled life or death because some drunk high school junior or senior got behind the wheel and ruined his/her life and some poor innocent persons too. There is a study, I think, that was done at Stanford University showing that the typical person is not emotionally mature, on average, until 21 years of age to add credence to what "Thumbs Down" says.

Using this same logic if we made murder legal we would have fewer murders.

Those of you who think this is a bad idea, how do you explain the fact that the US, with the highest age for alcohol consumption, has a greater incidence of alcohol binging and abuse among young people?

Fact is all countries has more permissive rules about alcohol and all of those countries have fewer incidences.

How does that fit into your perception??

Criminalizing something promotes abuse. Decriminalizing encourages responsible use.

isn't that what we want??

This is just a way for the colleges to escape liability for their students drinking on campus. Colleges have been found liable for failing to prohibit underage drinking. So, this is their answer.

As a Westminster alum, I am shocked and frankly disappointed by President Bassis' decision to be a part of this! What will it accomplish? There is no proof in the premise of this argument, lowering the drinking age will not stop binge drinking. Come on!

Boy someone didn't send him the memo about the other college presidents asking for a ban on advertising alcohol. Hmmm...big disconnect. Does he read any journals describing the massive problem of binge drinking at Universities across the nation? Our nations Universities cannot become expensive taverns.

An 18 year old and a 21 year old are in my opinion at the same maturity level. . . 18 year olds are in college and should be able to drink if they wish they can do everything else a 21 year old can except gamble if you are old enough to serve in the military and die for your country you should be able to drink if you wish

Not mature enough to drink at 18 - but mature enough to fight and be killed protecting my country. Me thinks something not right here.

Any college kid, or anyone under 21 who wants to drink, can get alcohol one way or another. They get creative, and are forced to disrepect law, which at the same time minimizes respect for other laws / law enforcement officers.
After high school, many if not most kids are on their own. Parents, teachers have done their jobs. It is time to allow them to live and learn at 18. This includes being allowed to drink alcohol. Just say NO to double-standards !!!!