Mocktails for You

As a student on the most liberal campus in the country, I'm going to risk social rejection (more of it anyway) by saying this, but 18-year-olds shouldn't have the right to drink. And the recent movement by more than 100 college administrators to lower the drinking age? Absolutely wrong.

It's not that I don't get their argument. I do. Young people feel a need to reject authority all the time. So when someone tells us we can't drink, we say "screw you" and proceed to join the masses in getting totally wasted at huge parties while dry-humping to that annoying "This is Why I'm Hot" song.

But that logic doesn't make sense. There are a ton of laws in place and it seems odd that the drinking age limit is the only one we find to be so repressive that it forces us into "reject authority" mode. I mean, exactly zero murderers-scratch that, this assumes people who murder other people are logical-very few murderers are going to tell you that they decided to take someone's life because the law told them they weren't allowed to.

The reason why young people abuse the right to drink in this country isn't just because it's taboo due to all of the supposedly unnecessary legal restrictions. It's because of the pervasive culture that the media-not the law-has created. Since we were little kids, we've been inundated with media images that tell us drinking isn't something you just do over the dinner table with your family-or in moderation at light social gatherings. It's sexy-something that makes your night completely crazy, something that turns you from an awkward dork into a crazy party animal. (Think "Animal House.")

And changing the age limit isn't going to change that. Instead, what it does is open the gates to a population of people who are even more vulnerable. Let's be real, 18-year-olds have a completely different mindset than the rest of us. High school doubles as a conformity factory-with students who are so desperate that they're willing to do anything to fit in. By not addressing this issue and simultaneously lowering the drinking age, all we do is guarantee that more young people are going to drink. I know you probably think all of this is bogus. I mean, we tried prohibition already and it was a huge failure, right?

Wrong! I don't support prohibition, but the widespread belief that it didn't work just isn't true. As a New York Times opinion piece by Harvard professor Mark H. Moore concludes, prohibition was a success; as a whole, alcohol consumption is estimated to have decreased by 30 to 50 percent during that period. But even if you reject those findings, what you can't reject is the social scientific reality. A mature 21-year-old is probably more likely to drink responsibly than a peer pressured 18-year-old.

I know what many of you are thinking. Joseph-eff those safety arguments! If I'm old enough to serve in the military, then I should be old enough to drink!

Hate to break it you-but that argument doesn't make sense. Drinking and serving in the military are completely different things. Young people serving in the military are helping to protect people in this country. And as military wife Melody Munroe points out in a CNN article (one that I'm actually quoted in), young people who drink are the people we need to be protected from. As Munroe candidly put it, "You (volunteer) to give your life. I'm not volunteering to die at your hands because you're trashed and driving drunk." Her claim is corroborated by studies from the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration, which conclude that the current drinking age law saves roughly 900 lives every year.

Look-I'm not saying anything that's completely revolutionary. College presidents are smart people who know that drinking underage isn't just about doing something that seems taboo. That's what makes their whole "lower the drinking age" campaign seem so self-serving and political. Colleges are understandably tired of spending money on enforcement over something that often turns cops into babysitters-and that's not something they should be burdened with. But given that the goal of a drinking age limit should be about public safety, unlike them, I'm going to have to just say no.

For the record, everything I'm saying could have been completely influenced by personal bias. I just turned 21 this month.

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