Washington Post Editorial Calls Amethyst Initiative a Bad Idea

An editorial in the Washington Post published earlier this month said the Amethyst letter, which called for lowering the drinking age, is not the solution to the nation’s drinking problem on college campuses. Instead, college administrators should work on enforcing the law.

“Some things only seem like a good idea at 3 a.m. Increasingly, the Amethyst Letter, which more than 100 college presidents and chancellors signed last year to advocate rethinking the drinking age, looks like one of them,” the editorial reads. The article notes that a recent study published in the in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that binge drinking has decreased nationwide with the increased drinking age — everywhere but on college campuses.

The editorial put the blame on college campuses for not enforcing the minimum drinking age law more strictly. “Outside college campuses, where underage drinking is clearly prohibited, young people more often have made the decision not to drink. This, in turn, has helped drive down drunk driving, assault and other unsafe behaviors. For further proof, college administrators should consider their drug policies; the perception that drug use will not be tolerated can and does influence students' choices.”

The study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatryfound that when young people know that the law will be upheld, they adjust their behavior. “Instead of complaining about the drinking age, they [college administrators] should try enforcing it,” the editorial noted.

Click here to read the full editorial: “A Lower Drinking Age? That would be a bad way to deal with binge drinking on campuses.”

To learn how your coalition can get involved in the conversation about lowering the drinking age, download CADCA’s Support 21 Toolkit.