Amethyst Initiative No Gem

Hat Tip and thanks to unofficial TDA researcher AnnaZ for the heads up on this one!
A coalition of college presidents and chancellors launched the Amethyst Initiative in July of this year to support “informed and unimpeded debate” on the federal minimum drinking age. Actually they are calling it the 21 year-old drinking age which doesn’t really jive being the law has been in place since 1984. That sounds like a bleary-eyed mistake I might make updating my site at an ungodly hour, but I expect better from the esteemed halls of academia. It leaves one to wonder if they really have put much thought into their tagline, “rethinking the drinking age”. Is it just “me thinking” these eggheads have basically thrown in the towel when it comes to combating underage drinking?

Never mind the stats supporting the benefits of minimum age laws and the detrimental effects of alcohol on the developing brain, it shouldn’t take an advanced degree to understand that when you shorten the line for the bar that those left outside will begin their own campaign for entry. The very argument the Amethyst Initiative makes about underage “clandestine drinking” works just as well for a bunch of seventeen year-olds that have just found themselves at the head of the queue. Maybe next up to bat will be a coalition of high school principals and counselors “retinkering the drinking age”.

Click "Read more" to continue...

My advice to the Amethyst Initiative is to educate students and the public about dangers of drinking in general. Maybe take a REAL initiative and explore how to change our culture of abuse and to raise awareness of the perverted acceptance we have for the repercussions suffered because of our love affair with alcohol. Yeah it’s idealistic, but isn’t that what college is supposed to be all about?

Let's change the poisoned culture first, then we can debate the minimum age for drinking... of course if successful then the drinking age will have become a moot point.