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8/23/2008
Wigderson: Wisconsin has a drinking problem
Wisconsin has a drinking problem. In July, Gannett Wisconsin did an analysis of all fifty states and came to a depressing conclusion, we’re number one for drinking having an impact on our state. Not just that we like to have a good time. The impact also refers to the societal costs of drinking including alcoholism and government costs.
Lucky us.
Wisconsin is notorious for its drunk driving problem, too. In survey after survey, Wisconsin is the worst in the nation when it comes to drunk driving. The old joke of “don’t drink and drive – you might spill your drink” is about the most serious Wisconsin gets when enforcing its laws on drunk driving as news reports of fourth and fifth time drunk driving offenders make the news after they’ve killed someone. Everyone wonders why? But nobody has the political will to take these loaded guns off the streets.
And now some university presidents, trying to deal with their problems of binge drinking on campus by underage students, have endorsed the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18. My long temptation has been to say, “If they’re old enough to vote, they’re old enough to drink. Let the politicians drive them to drink like everyone else.
Similar arguments have been made about those serving our country in the military at 18, risking their lives for their country but not allowed to chance a beer.
Joining the call is Ripon College president David Joyce, who tells us the drinking age isn’t working and that we are only encouraging a culture of drinking instead of a culture of responsible alcohol consumption. Perhaps.
But I remember the days when Wisconsin was moving to the 21-year-old drinking age. It’s a vivid memory because I was just on the wrong side of the line and my peers just a year or two older than me could drink at 18, but I had to wait until 21.
The reality is that I didn’t have to wait. Some bars were difficult but most bars and liquor stores served me without much issue. One bar even announced over the loud-speaker system that I was there for the first time legally on my 21st birthday. Being able to drink in a bar did nothing to stop my binge drinking or the binge drinking of my peers. All it did was move it off campus.
The debate reminds me of my trip to pre-hurricane New Orleans in 1988 for the Republican National Convention. A group of college kids was staying in Hammond, just outside of New Orleans, and every night of our stay we would chip in for cigarettes for the bus driver so he would pull over at the Circle K so we could buy beer for the ride back. Finally one of the locals – remember this is party town New Orleans - looked at our group from Wisconsin and observed, “Y’all from Wisconsin sure do drink a lot.
So before Wisconsin joins any other state in considering lowering the drinking age, we would be better off looking at why Wisconsin has such a pervasive drinking culture that former attorney general Peg Lautenschlager is still considered a viable candidate by many Democrats. Why a drunk driving arrest is a too-common bullet point on the resume of many in the state legislature. Why there’s a martini glass at the top of my website. Why Rolling Stone magazine one year refused to consider UW-Wisconsin in its survey of party schools, announcing the contest was only open to amateurs.
And we should seriously consider the costs of lowering the drinking age – in human tragedy and societal costs.
James Wigderson blogs regularly at Wigderson Library & Pub.
COMMENTS
I recently read that 90% of the world's brandy is drunk in WI--if true, no wonder there's a problem. And lowering the drinking age will only make it worse. Not many 15-or-16-year-olds have a lot of friends that are 21; but do have friends that are 18. Figure it out.
emily matthews (Mon Aug 25 11:07:06 2008)
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