[CR] Week in Review
Happy Friday, everyone. Here’s the latest round-up of stories and commentaries on binge and underage drinking from around the country:
Stories this week:
In recent months, there have been a number of community and campus events in Connecticut about [CR], binge drinking, and the legal drinking age. The Bristol Press posted word of an upcoming forum on January 28 at Farmington High School called “Is 21 the Answer? A Discussion about Lowering the Drinking Age.”
Mike Males of the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice published a recent study in the California Journal of Health Promotion indicating that California could benefit from graduated purchasing laws for alcohol that allow young adults to consume beer and wine at 18. The OC Weekly’s “Navel Gazing” blog was on the case this week – Males used to write for them, and he had “legions of fans” while he did so, according to the editors. They have a summary of his findings and MADD California’s response here.
Boston-area radio host Michael Graham isn’t afraid of polemics. He wrote a provocative op-ed in the Boston Herald this week, and drifted off the issue of the drinking age, but nonetheless his piece raises some timely questions about the nature of the alcohol laws in Massachusetts.
In other news…
In case you missed it, Duke University Economics Professor Philip Cook posted a thoughtful piece on the Amethyst Initiative during a week-long series on alcohol control policy at Volokh Conspiracy.
A new study called “The Behavioral Impact of Drinking and Driving Laws” was published by researchers from the University of Missouri and the University of Georgia in a recent edition of the Policy Studies Journal. The results indicate that high-visibility campaigns which illustrate the consequences of drunk driving can have a deterrent effect on instances of impaired driving. Join Together has more details.
Another research summary from Join Together indicates that high concentrations of alcohol outlets in a community can affect binge drinking rates among those who are underage. The LA Times posted a story about the research in late December, and Join Together’s summary is available here.
Did you catch something that we missed? Check out these stories and let us know in the comments.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
This is all good news posted above because lowering the drinking age to 18 would be the correct thing to do because 18, 19, and 20 year olds are adults and must be treated as such. The most promising editorial is that of Mike Males who correlated benefit to California with a drinking age of 18. The age 21 should no longer mean anything, it’s 18 that should be respected and not 21. Make the drinking age 18 in every state of the United States for freedom and to create a new culture of alcohol responsibility among young people.