A WEEKEND visit to nearly any undergraduate institution in the country will reveal that underage drinking is a widespread phenomenon. This was the finding of a study conducted jointly by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, two independent organizations that were called on by Congress to carry out this research. Although the findings of the study may be technically correct because they reveal the extend of underage drinking, the recommendations of the study to solve the problem (such as raising excise taxes and introducing a television and movie rating system to screen out material that portrays people drinking) appear ineffective, expensive and will most likely harm the alcohol industry and legal consumers of alcohol rather than curb underage drinking.
As defined by drinking laws which make the legal drinking age 21, there is indeed a preponderance of underage drinking, as the study mentioned that 72 percent of high school seniors, and 39 percent of eighth graders had reported some alcohol consumption in the past month ("Study calls on society to battle underage drinking," CNN.com, Sept. 10). However, the measures proposed by this report will most probably do little to change these statistics. One of the key recommendations of the report is to raise excise taxes in order to try to force out underage drinking by making it too expensive for youths under 21. However, alcohol products are already some of the most heavily state and federally-taxed products in U.S. markets.
In today's day and age, teenagers represent a sizable portion of the consuming public, hence the amount of advertising dollars aimed at youths. Whether the income comes from after school jobs, or from parent-funded allowances, American teens usually have a good amount of money in their pockets, probably more than enough to buy alcohol no matter how much taxes are raised. If excise taxes are made higher, the only people who will suffer will be alcohol producers and legal consumers, who will both lose undue money due to the state.
The study also recommended that all sellers and servers of alcohol undergo state-approved training and that compliance checks by state authorities by increased in order to make sure that venders and restaurants are following the laws. In reality, this may simply constitute a waste of states' money. Most vendors and servers are familiar with the laws, and if they do sell to underage drinkers, it is because a good fake ID fooled them or because they are knowingly supplying those youth. Even if more stringent training and compliance guidelines are enforced within the states, there will always be a vendor who will sell to underage drinkers because they don't realize that the consumer is underage or they simply don't care.
Other recommendations of this study suggested that more funding be put into improving state ID cards to make them harder to forge. It also suggested more aggressive patrolling of parties where underage drinking may occur and for the alcohol industry further cut out advertising aimed at younger market segments. None of these solutions, however, aims at the root of the problem, which is the desire of underage drinkers to drink.
The study acknowledges that drinking is a "society-wide problem" but doesn't suggest how to reform society to deal with it. Perhaps the root of underage drinking is in the perception of alcohol as a forbidden fruit. Many parents in the United States do not let their children sample alcoholic beverages, which prompts their curiosity as to what alcohol tastes and feels like. Combined with peer pressure, a sense of rebellion and a severe lack of understanding of how to handle one's alcohol due to no drinking experience, such an environment is ideal for underage drinking.
No matter what the barriers are, if underage drinkers want to drink, they will always find a supplier of some sort. The root of the underage drinking problem lies at the perception of alcohol and its effects for underage drinkers. The best remedy is for parents and family to educate their children on how to drink responsibly. No matter what superficial solutions are undertaken as a result of this study, they will only make alcohol harder for youths to come by but will not take away their impulse to drink.
(Alex Rosemblat's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at arosemblat@cavalierdaily.com.)
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