Choose Responsibility

Leslie Bridgers of the Portland Press-Herald reports that Colby College will ban hard alcohol from all dorms and parties beginning this year in an attempt to cut down on dangerous episodes of toxic drinking by students.

The ban comes “more than two years after nearly 20 students were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning following a now-defunct annual tradition called Champagne on the Steps, in which seniors marked the end of classes by drinking on the steps of Colby’s library.”

Colby Dean of Students Jim Terhune said the ban would hopefully lead to safer outcomes for students who choose to drink, since “we don’t have students ending up in the hospital because they’ve had too many beers.” However, some students believe the policy – which bans liquor for all students, regardless of age – is too restrictive and might lead to more underground pre-gaming. What do you think?

Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and contributor to The Atlantic, recently penned a blog post called “What To Do About Drugs (Abridged)“, a provocative list of drug policy reform ideas. The list covered a wide variety of topics, and his last three proposals deal with alcohol and the legal drinking age. Here they are:

“10. Raise taxes on alcohol from the current average of a dime per drink to something closer to a dollar.

11. Make getting drunk (as opposed to drinking) the object of a big negative-advertising campaign. Goal: make being drunk, or having been drunk, something people—especially young people—try to hide, rather than something they brag about.

12. Abolish the age restriction on alcohol.”

Responding to some of his critics in a follow-up post, Kleiman wrote,

“Note that the drinking-age idea was paired with a tenfold increase in alcohol taxes to about a dollar a drink, roughly doubling the retail price of alcohol. That, plus a zero-tolerance policy on drinking and driving for teenagers, would get you most of the benefits of the current 21-year-old MLDA (and lots of benefits the MLDA can’t provide) without making tens of millions of teenagers into scofflaws.  It’s a good general principle that a law that’s widely broken is a bad law, and 90% of American 18-year-olds have sampled alcohol, despite the laws against it.”

What do you think of Kleiman’s proposals? Let us know by leaving your feedback in the comments.

In Sunday’s edition of the Boston Globe Magazine, contributor Tom Keane penned a provocative essay exploring the merits and faults of alcohol regulation in Massachusetts. He touched on issues such as alcohol taxation, legislation targeting the concentration of liquor stores in local communities, and finally on the legal drinking age. He concluded,

“The lesson here is an old one: The law is a poor way to regulate private human behavior. So what to do? First, we should rethink our rules. Make the drinking age 18. Let the standard for issuing a liquor license be the character of the license holder, not the number of licenses in a town. Bring back price competition – including happy hours – and allow the market for alcohol to be the same as it is for any other foodstuff, which is to say, largely free and unfettered. But we also need to change our attitudes. At the heart of our problem with alcohol is that we think it something evil when it is not. Sure, misuse and overindulgence are bad, with sometimes terrible consequences. But this is true of many things; a car careening into a crowd does not make the car itself evil. I’m with the poets. What we really need is a culture that celebrates the wise use of alcohol rather than a body of laws whose aim is to make us feel guilty.”

What do you think of his argument? Read the whole thing, then give us your take by leaving your reactions in the comments.

Over the weekend, several newspapers in New York updated readers on some significant anti-drunk driving legislation that passed earlier in the year. According to multiple reports, 311 people have been arrested so far under the new Child Passenger Protection Act, which makes it a felony to drive drunk with a passenger under 16 in the vehicle.

The final provision of the Child Passenger Protection Act, also known as Leandra’s Law, will take effect on August 15: courts will order convicted drunk drivers to install ignition interlocks in their cars, regardless of whether a child under 16 was in the vehicle at the time. New York will join a group of 9 other states which require mandatory interlocks for all first-time offenders.

Check out the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ press release for more information.

Yesterday, the editors of the Express-Times in Lehigh Valley, PA solicited reader comments on the merits of Legal Age 21 and the possibility of lowering the drinking age. They sought comment after publishing a story about a local prison official who stands accused of providing alcohol to underage drinkers.

Please visit the Express-Times‘ Lehigh Valley Live site to join in the debate -  submit your comments and let the other readers know what you think.

This morning, the Portland Press Herald published a “Maine Voices” commentary by Michael Waxman, a Yarmouth resident, parent of four, and trial lawyer. In his op-ed, Waxman said he believes Legal Age 21 is “dangerous” and he called on his fellow parents to advocate for a new approach to alcohol education:

“If we can’t do better by our kids than to put our heads in the sand and forget about and deny our own adolescent experiences when it comes to alcohol, then we are dropping the ball in a big way and accepting avoidable and tragic alcohol related deaths of our loved ones.”

Check out the rest of his commentary at the Press Herald site and leave your feedback in the comments.

Last night, KLEW-TV in Lewiston, Idaho reported on the apparent alcohol poisoning death of University of Idado senior Benjamin Harris. Harris was celebrating his 21st birthday at the Sigma Nu fraternity on Monday night, where police said he drank “15 shots of liquor within a two and a half hour period.” Officers found Harris unconscious at the fraternity and took him to a local medical center where he was pronounced dead.

The University of Idado has experienced a string of alcohol-related injuries and deaths recently, and Harris’ death is the latest incident. In April of 2009, 23 year-old Daniel Miller passed away after a night of heavy drinking, and in January of this year, a 27 year-old UI student and a 21 year-old former student died after combining large amounts of alcohol with prescription drugs.

“Binge drinking, we all know the dangers involved with this, but it seems to be something that people strive for and celebrate. Celebrating a birthday shouldn’t have a result like this,” said David Duke, the Assistant Police Chief in Moscow.

KLEW has a video report on the story here.

On Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer called for tighter regulations on the producers of alcoholic energy drinks such as Joose and Four Loko, arguing that “the manufacturers are deliberately trying to get young people to drink.” According to Kristin Cole of CBS New York, he believes the drinks’ high alcohol content and fruity flavors appeal too strongly to underage drinkers:

“The alcoholic energy drinks have twice the amount of alcohol of beers, at 12 percent by volume, something they proudly proclaim at the top of the can. The cans are brightly colored and come in flavors like fruit punch, and that’s why many want them marketed better – or taken off the market completely.”

Last year, the FDA commissioned studies to determine the safety of these beverages, but the agency has yet to reach any conclusions.

What do you think? Are these drinks too easily marketed to underage drinkers? Let us know in the comments.

In late May, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services administration released new data showing an increase in underage drinking and alcohol-related hospitalizations over the Memorial Day weekend. Now, they’ve published a study showing similar increases over the July 4th holiday weekend:

“The study reveals that daily underage drinking-related visits to hospital emergency departments are 87 percent higher during the Fourth of July weekend than they are on an average day in July. The report estimates that on an average day in July, there are 502 hospital emergency department visits involving underage alcohol use. For the three day Fourth of July weekend however, the number of daily hospital emergency department visits jumps to 938.”

Check out the full press release from SAMHSA to read comments from administrator Pamela Hyde and leave your feedback in the comments.

Christopher Jensen, a contributor to the New York Times “Wheels” blog, reported recently that Congress is considering a six-fold funding increase for a government program that would make non-invasive ignition interlock technology an option in new vehicles. Jensen wrote,

“The device, which would automatically sniff the driver’s breath or use a light beam to test the alcohol content of tissue, would prevent drunken operators from starting the vehicle. There is no plan for the device to be mandatory. Those working on the project hope consumers will accept the alcohol interlock voluntarily because of the safety advantages.”

Currently, the interlock program operates on a $2 million annual budget, but that funding would increase to $12 million annually if the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 passes. The program is a collaborative effort between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and 13 automakers.

Interlocks are a form of targeted technology that can cut down on instances of drunk driving, so we’ll be watching this program closely. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.