Having met most people, we arranged to meet up with some English friends to go down to the Student Union for an ‘ice cream social’. Yes, you did read that correctly, an ice cream social. It’s probably important to mention here that everyone on our corridor are freshmen (first years) and all very, very excited by that fact. The ice cream social at the student union was, I suppose, UCONNS version of Freshers but missing one very vital ingredient: alcohol. Coming from a country which is infamous for its drinking problems and where you are likely to walk past 15 year olds, knocked up, smoking a fag and downing a can of Strongbow, I was interested to see what Americans opinion of its drinking laws would be and if it was as harshly enforced as the rumours say or more relaxed like in the films – red plastic cups at frat parties and all that!
Our first introduction to the drinking age was at the beginning of orientation and, if i’m going to be honest, it was all fairly ambiguous. While they stressed that you could get fined by the police, or kicked out of UCONN, or even arrested, they all said so in such a way that implied “if you’re subtle enough and you don’t act like a complete drunken maniac, then we’ll never know”. In no way am I underestimating the issues you could land yourself in if you’re caught drinking under age -one boy I met managed to land himself a hefty $300 fine and was fired from the summer camp where he was working- but at the same time they sound like they expect everyone to drink whatever their age and so I do wonder why the drinking age is still so high.
One American girl said she liked having the drinking age higher because, I assume, it means that you learn to have a good time at college and to make friends without alcohol, and, once you’ve settled in and matured a little, you can then drink ‘responsibly’ and on suitable occasions. I do understand this argument as, although I have been known to have my fair few drunken nights, I have never felt the need that in order to socialise I must have alcohol. While it does help, and I can’t deny that there’s nothing more satisfying than a Vodka Cranberry with a hint of lime on a Friday night (or any night for that matter), it’s more because I enjoy the social environment that comes with drinking and not the drinking itself.
While England has definitely not got it right with its constant statistics revealing that underage drinking is constantly on the increase, at the same time I think that America’s system is just far too extreme. It was initially raised to 21 in the 80’s in an attempt to decrease car accidents and yet I think America is now suffering a whiplash of defiance as students are just rebelling against the law and binge drinking for the thrill of it. Furthermore, it seems fairly hypocritical to have raised the drinking age to 21 in order to prevent traffic accidents, yet to allow 15 year olds on the road!!! Surely they pose more of a threat to themselves and to others than a few beers will do!
On another note why is it that an 18 year old can spend a year fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq yet when they get their few days leave they can’t enjoy a cool refreshing beer with their friends? Alcohol has played a massive role in many cultures history as a religious, social and even medicinal beverage yet it has now become something which, in America at least, is forbidden and so hidden underground and abused. While England’s drinking culture is going to the extreme, I do think there is a healthy medium to be found but that I’m afraid is another of life’s mysteries. As the founding Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said, "... alcohol has existed longer than all human memory. It has outlived generations, nations, epochs and ages. It is a part of us, and that is fortunate indeed. For although alcohol will always be the master of some, for most of us it will continue to be the servant of man"
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