Drinking age under fire

A petition was signed by more than 100 college presidents and chancellors last month, calling for debate on the effects of the current legal drinking age of 21 in the U.S.

The petition, known as the Amethyst Initiative, is a statement that has been signed by 129 college presidents, said Grace Kronenberg, the assistant to the director at Choose Responsibly, a nonprofit organization that supports the Amethyst Initiative.

The University of California president has not yet made a decision to sign the document.

A group of eight college presidents drafted the statement along with Choose Responsibly, and it has been signed by well known universities such as Johns Hopkins, Duke, Ohio State and Tufts, she said.

Choose Responsibly is an organization seeking to address the issue of alcohol abuse on college campuses and was founded two years ago by John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College.

“We’ve been working with the issue more broadly of trying to address the issues of alcohol abuse across America,” Kronenberg said. “Our reason is based on our belief that 21 isn’t working.”

The federal drinking age has been 21 years old since 1984, and there is evidence that problems of alcohol abuse, suicide, traffic crashes and fatalities have decreased since the age was raised, said Mitchell Karno, an associate research psychologist in UCLA’s department of psychiatry and the director of alcohol studies at the UCLA integrated substance abuse program.

The Amethyst Initiative contests this evidence and suggests that if adults under 21 years old are able to vote, sign contracts, serve on juries and enlist in the military, they should be able to consume alcohol, according the Amethyst Initiative Web site.

Karno said the extreme amount of alcohol consumption on college campuses is not abnormal.

“The petition reflects the great problem campuses have in stopping college drinking,” he said. “It is not unique to us ““ it’s a big problem.”

The problem of alcohol abuse on campuses is bigger than the law, he said.

“Alcohol consumption on campuses is a special phenomenon,” he said. “(The phenomenon is due to) a large social relationship to alcohol on campuses, the tradition of drinking in college, and fitting in.”

The Amethyst Initiative targets college campuses, where people under 21 drink alcohol and congregate, Kronenberg said.

Every campus was invited to sign, she said, though UC President Yudof has not yet made a decision.

“President Yudof and the chancellors will be discussing the initiative in the near future,” said Brad Hayward, a spokesman for the UC Office of the President in an e-mail statement. “We have not signed on to the initiative at this time, though President Yudof did receive the invitation to do so.”

Kronenberg said those supporting the Amethyst Initiative await Yudof’s final decision.

“We sent quite a bit of material to his office after he had requested it, and we’re hoping that once ““ when and if, I should say ““ the chancellors of the UC schools will come on board,” she said.

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