Lowering the Drinking Age
Underage drinking has long alarmed college administrators and health professionals. But now a deep schism is forming among those same people on how to address the problem.
Last month, more than 100 college presidents signed a petition calling for a debate on whether the minimum legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18.
That's a bad idea, says Traci Toomey (pictured), a University of Minnesota researcher. She says in a 2002 analysis of high-quality studies on the age-21 drinking law's effects, the majority of studies found that the higher drinking age resulted in lower rates of traffic crashes, none found the opposite.
�It is the most well-studied alcohol control policy we have in this country,� says Toomey, an associate professor in the School of Public Health.
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