Comments about ‘Plan won't stop binge drinking’

If the drinking age is lowered to 18, many seniors in high school can drink legally. They can go out on their lunch break and have a few beers for lunch. 18-21 year olds are already among the highest accident prone and they would be able to drive up to the .08 alcohol limit. I'm sure we can think of other ADVANTAGES also.

Yeah, Drink Up. Those 18-year olds could go out, have a couple of beers, and DRIVE back to school with .08% alcohol in their blood. Man, the last couple periods of the day would be a hoot. Party-on, Dudes!

This is Utah. We should be able to have the most liberal laws in the country, and none of your fears would come to fruition. After all, this is bascially 'abstinence only', and we've all been hearing lately that this works so well...

@ 7:23,

You've almost got it right. People who live above the laws of the land don't have to worry about being pulled over for drunken driving. BUT, how about that little itty, bitty, infinitesimally small part of Utah's population that disrespects law, either religious or civil?

Do you want drunk teenagers to use your street as though it were a "Dodge-Em" arcade venue? If that's what you want, why not just replace milk in the baby's bottle with beer and get them used to the idea of drinking at birth?

Ummmm, anonymous, I hate to burst your bubble but Utah has the lowest teen birthrate in the country and one of the lowest in the world. Apparently the "abstinence only" thing is working.

Speaking of bursting bubbles, I was a 17 year old senior who had beer for lunch. I was also a student in honors classes and one of only two students who received a National Merit Scholar commendation in my graduating class. Being underage didn't stop me from drinking beer during school and drinking beer during school didn't stop me from achieving. Would I have been better off not drinking? Sure. Did making drinking illegal work to do that? No. Did the fact that it was illegal encourage me to do it? You bet. If I had been allowed to drink beer what would I have been rebelling against?

No, Utah does not have the lowest teen birthrate in the country. We have the lowest unmarried teen birthrate. We have a rather high married teen birthrate. We also have a rather high young-married divorce rate.

Fact Checker: Thanks for backing my argument, and inflating my bubble. Abstinence works. Therefore, availability and exposure isn't even part of the equation, since consumption is prevented at the consumer level. Especially in Utah. Alcohol, sex, you name it. To that end, the insanely obfuscatory distribution and regulation we have on alcohol is not only unnecessary, but runs smack into the reality that, since abstinence works so well, we have no problem regardless of availability. As for Mike's concerns about that minute minority who disrespect the law, well...they disrespect the law. They can, and do, get alcohol regardless of the law. That won't change no matter what the law does. Get off the high horse, no one wants to feed it to the babies. Abstinence, remember? I don't want the drunk teenagers on the street either. But get with the program. The purple zion curtain hiding it at the restaurant isn't going to prevent it. Get out there with your abstinence message.

(Sigh) Ms. Sperry, no one is "voting" for anything. A fair number of university presidents across the country have signed a resolution calling for a DISCUSSION of current alcohol law. That's all. Are we so rigid, so afraid of taking a critical look at what we're doing that we can't even have a discussion? I personally don't think that unilaterally lowering the drinking age is a good idea, but perhaps some changes would help prevent young people abusing alcohol.

Or perhaps not. The point is that we won't know if we cling to untested theories like people who are more concerned about looking right than actually doing right.

Back to the point.... An 18 year old can give his/her life for their country but can't buy a beer? An 18 year old is clear thinking enough to cast a vote for President of the United States but does not have the judgment to have a glass of wine responsibly?

Your lack of common sense doesn't mean we all have to join you. The law has a symbolic purpose: to say we legalize means we give tacit approval. I'm not ready to say to a teenager, "Bottoms up."

Anon 10:42
What with the comment of the Zion Curtain? Have you ever traveled in This Country?

In Van Buren, Arkansas (low LDS population) is in a "Dry" county,Guess what they have the Private Club law (whow, who would have thought people who are NOT LDS, having the same law). To add to that, YOU can not even have Beer sold in Stores.

Wow, this is one of many places in the Country that does not have the LDS influence that does the same thing and add to that has strick laws that makes Utah laws look liberal.

There are several places in the US that have Dry counties, Conn, Georgia Arkansas, etc.

So you see it is not simply the LDS Church trying to dictate laws, it happens all over the country.

IF the legal drinking age were lowered to 18, WHY worry?? Isn't this Utah?? Land of the righteous, "never touch the stuff", my child would never touch a drop because he's getting ready to go on a mission religion?? If you parents have truly raised your children in accordance with church doctrine, you would have NOTHING to worry your saintly little heads about. Or is all NOT well in Zion??

You didn't get my point then. What I was saying is that we are currently telling teens and young adults "bottoms up". They can access alcohol but we are telling them that they are irresponsible. What kind of behavior do you expect when you tell someone that they can't have something (but you know they can) because they are irresponsible. How about giving responsibility and holding them accountable. Currently we don't ask for responsibility and we don't hold them accountable. That is like saying "bottoms up".

Gopherus | 9:11 a.m.:

"If I had been allowed to drink beer what would I have been rebelling against?"

Hard drugs would be my guess.

I think they should lower the age of drinking AND promiscuity to 14... and possibly lower.

Gopherus, I have drank legally since I was 18. Part of the excitement before this was figuring out how to get alcohol. Getting alcohol, was fun. Being illegal, we drank all we got. This was true even if it was a half gallon of gin.

In Utah, you associate rewards with touting the party line.

I was blessed with a father who encouraged independent thinking.

I could write about my LDS friend whose father trying to force morality on him. It wouldn't get printed here. It's not a uplifting story.

Since when are 18, 19, and 20 year-olds "children" in any context besides drinking?

Sorry, I can't follow your argument. All I know is that teenagers + alcohol should be against the law because it is a disastrous combination, not only for the inherently irresponsible teenager but also for the people he hits and kills while careening drunkenly down the street.

How about raising the driving age? Wouldn't it be nice if people were done experimenting with alcohol before they are allowed to drive a deadly weapon?