I can see why college presidents would want the burden of policing alcohol offenses off their hands again. It would pretty much do away with the in locus parentis role that they've been ignoring anyway in recent years. And this will free them up to do what they're really hired to do, rake more money in for their universities.

Problem is, 18 year old legal drinking societies like the UK still struggle mightily and admittedly with binge drinking issues.

@Kev29

And many also don't.

College students are going to party, that's a fact. But if you can remove the "forbidden fruit" aspect of it, you can hopefully also remove the "drink as much of it as you can right now because you don't know when you'll get it again" aspect of it as well.

drink as much of it as you can right now because you don't know when you'll get it again"

I don't think its a matter of "hurry up and drink it now because we might not get to again soon." binge drinkers will be at it again the very next night regardless. i do think it would help alleviate the tendancy of under 21ers to quickly down 14 beers in a pre-drink before going out. maybe students would be able to pace themselves more if it wasn't such a secrecy thing.

Indeed freshyill - but the cultures that don't have a major underage binge drinking culture, also don't have a general binge drinking culture. I'm thinking about countries like Italy, Portugal, etc. But, the US is more akin to countries like the UK, Ireland or Australia where the drinking culture is already ingrained. The genie is out of the bottle and there's no stuffing it back in. What I think a lowered drinking age would do is merely lower the taboo drinking age - like what happens in the UK, where kids just get started slamming alcopops earlier.

UNC is not on the list, but Duke is. Poo on you, Erskine Bowles.

Agree with freshyill and wonderwazz - GW, for example, has big alcohol poisoning problems. I attribute that (at least partially) because the university cracks down so hard on drinking and doesn't let kids drink at school-sponsored events like concerts, so they're hiding in their rooms.

as someone who went to a school in a state where the drinking age changed from 18 to 21 halfway through my freshman year*, i can say that it definitely had an effect. it was much more of a laid back atmosphere when it was "legal". kids got drunk, sure. but it wasn't a big deal. they changed it and all of sudden alcohol was like crack to some kids.

i don't know if it's the right decision to change it. all i know is that for good or bad, the drinking age has some effect.

*The drinking age has always been 21 in Louisiana. But before 1996, it was legal to sell to 18 year olds. they finally closed the loophole. the drinking aspect was never enforced, until the SAE pledge died at LSU. then cops were raiding every bar in NOLA.

And the 21 year old legal drinking society in the US has similar issues. So maybe the legal age has little to do with it?

Right, so changing state laws is really not going to effect the drinking culture. Why do it then - so kids who already have a great time in college can, err, still have a great time in college? This whole concept has nothing to do with the health and wellbeing of young drinkers but with the financial and legal interests of colleges and universities.

I'd love to support this in principle, but this really has more to do with the self-interest of universities. Think of the good times they could promote and profit from with a legal drinking culture? And the money they'd save in policing and prosecuting students.

It'd be interesting to see the effect that this has on underage DUIs. Part of me wants to believe that part of the reason that minors get so many DUIs is that they have to hide their drinking from their parents/RAs and make the decision to drive rather than wait out their drunkenness.

However, with how irresponsible people are in America, I'm sure DUIs would skyrocket. I'm glad to live in an area where I dont even have to think about driving to go out.

"Right, so changing state laws is really not going to effect the drinking culture. Why do it then"

Because there is a disparity in the current laws, where you can legally be sent to fight overseas but you cannot legally have a beer.

You're against the change because it would benefit universities? That's just weird.

People actually have trouble getting alcohol in college? I went to school in DC. I never had trouble getting served in bars - although they were the kind of bars 18-year-olds like to hang out at...

"Now I just wish they'd also come up with a time machine so I could go back to 18 and actually enjoy the change."

I'm fairly agnostic on this - but I've never understood the sentiment expressed above. Why wd you want to go back? Was drinking at 18 somehow different? Is it inherent that being drunk and young is better? And why is it all about being DRUNK? Being drunk is stupid, full stop. Being Drunk and young makes for stupid decisions. Drinking doesn't have to equal drunkeness - and so long as we aggrandize the joys of spending your youth drunk, the age limits will remain irrelavant to the glamour we convey.

I don't know how/if lowering the legal drinking age to 18 will curb binge drinking but I do know if 18-21 year olds start showing up at bars...it'll be SO LAME!

With a lower drinking age, many kids learn to drink around their parents. With a drinking age of 21 kids learn to drink from @ssholes right around their own age.

I learned to drink around kids who though it was reasonable to run around a golf course drinking SoCo straight out of a 1.75 liter bottle. How does that make sense? No wonder I'm over 30 and still have trouble deciding if I need a fourth 22 oz. beer at the end of a Tuesday night happy hour.

Let 18-year-old adults drink in a bar like adults and a lot of the problems associated with underage drinking will go away.

I agree with petitepomme, my drinking problems will stop if the bars were filled 18-20 year olds...just imagine what Adams Morgan will turn into then.

This only addresses a symptom and not the underlying problem. Kids in college get sh!tfaced because they've had to deal with "helicopter parents" since day one, so that they can't even defecate without calling mom to figure out whether they should wipe front-to-back or versa visa. One taste of freedom and of course these clowns are drinking straight Everclear without even a lime Slurpee chaser. Parents should be giving kids wine with dinner while they're still in gradeschool, and, to help remove any residual cachet associated with underaged drinking, the State should mandate that every 13-year-old be forced to down a half-case of Carling's Black Label in one sitting. It's just the sort of aversion-therapy-meets-bar-mitzvah this country needs to nip this problem in the bud. And speaking of buds, that goes double for reefer. Nothing scares a kid straight like sitting in a circle in the den and getting baked with your parents while staring at the back of Pink Floyd albums and dollar bills. That sh!t is cruel, man.

With a lower drinking age, many kids learn to drink around their parents.

The amount of binge drinking at any age isn't going to change unless the culture of drinking changes, whether it's taboo at 18 or 21.

Agreed. My first experiences with alcohol were in a casual, supportive, family environment studying abroad in Austria. The drinking culture is completely different. Beer isn't seen as taboo or "off-limits," it is a normal part of everyday life that is meant to be enjoyed responsibly, not pounding beer after beer at the flip-cup table trying to get wasted.

In a way, if we shifted the cultural paradigm to accepting and enjoying alcohol responsibly with parental input and guidance, getting trashed would lose its outlaw appeal. But ultimately, if you are an adult legally at 18, then you are responsible enough to make your own alcohol decisions and deal with the consequences.

I will always support an end to the legal drinking age. I don't really need an argument, do I?

I think i witnessed this bizarre phenomenon first hand throughout my time at college. Having attended a university on the border with Quebec (legal drinking age 18) the difference between college students at McGill, Concordia, etc. and my school were striking. First and second year students at the Canadian schools tended to