Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 2009
Source: Day, The (New London,CT)
Copyright: 2009 The Day Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.theday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/293
Author: Chuck Potter

LET'S TALK ABOUT DRINKING AGE, POT

When you learn that there is a movement on college campuses across
this great nation to lower the legal drinking age your first reaction
might be to tell the young whippersnappers to drink milk, get back to
class and come back when they can handle their liquor.

Some have said recently that such is not the wisest advice. Beyond
that, the message is improperly targeted. The message needs to be
directed at the presidents of many of America's finest colleges and
universities. For it is they who seek to allow Buffy, Biff and the
frat brats to imbibe at the student union.

More than 130 college presidents, six of whom are from Connecticut,
including Mary Ellen Jukowski at Mitchell College, and Steven Kaplan
at University of New Haven, have signed on to the Amethyst Initiative,
which wants to discuss and debate the minimum legal drinking age with
the idea of reducing it to 18 once again.

First instincts might be to condemn this as a dangerous and foolish
undertaking. Indeed, there are many who point to the number of teens
killed on Americas highways when, for a scant half-decade, from
1970-75, the age was lowered to 18.

They use as evidence the reduction in deaths in the years following
the return of 21-year-old as the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA).
The numbers have been debated intensely. I read too many numbers, too
many arguments and counter-arguments and counter statistics to base my
position on them.

I contend that if we teach our young people to drink responsibly at
any age, they won't be inclined to go off to college and use their
new-found independence to test their capabilities of
consumption.

I recall visiting Southern Connecticut State College (then) while I
was in the Air Force. They played drinking games. We didn't do that at
Plattsburg AFB. We just had a beer. And a shot.

On another note, I grew up in the Surfers Drum and Bugle Corps. And we
learned to drink responsibly, among (mostly) 18-year-old legally
drinking members who monitored our conduct.

Surely there were instances of drunkenness among the legal and the
youth. But there wasn't a climate of intoxication and binge drinking
such as exists at many campuses these days, especially on the weekends.

America has a propensity, it seems, for attempting to legislate
morality. It's not working. We can invoke stiff penalties for drunken
driving and for damage done while under the influence, but we can't
make someone not drink.

It's a worthy debate.

If for no other reason than raising badly needed revenue, so is the
idea of legalizing marijuana. A lot of people smoke marijuana and
America has had no success in stopping it.

I don't have the figures to prove it, but I suspect that there is more
money spent on investigating and prosecuting violations of marijuana
possession laws, and on housing incarcerated marijuana dealers, than
is lost to violence and property damage done resulting directly from
marijuana use.

Besides the money that would not be spent, there of course, would be
tax revenues. If pot were legal, it would cost far less than it does
now, even with a stiff tax attached. The buyers and sellers are not
just the teenagers, college kids and young adults. America has pot
smokers of all ages, all walks of life. It's not just a street drug
anymore.

More and more states are decriminalizing marijuana. This stepping
stone to legalization is a convenient way for states, such as
Massachusetts, to collect some revenue without crowding the courts and
jails. In the meanwhile, everyone smart enough to smoke their joints
behind closed doors will avoid the citations and accompanying fines.

More important, legalizing marijuana might make it safer. The growers
are not bound by any laws and therefore could put toxins in their
plants to improve quality and potency. Also, if legalized,
manufactures might develop creative alternative means of ingestion,
which could make for less smoking-related illness.

Finally, there is entirely too much marijuana available in America for
the government to get a handle on it. So who are we kidding?
Legalizing pot will not necessarily make for safer streets. Street
wars are about crack cocaine and heroin. But it will make for safer
consumption, a more honest society and a lot of tax revenue.

It's another discussion worth having.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin