I am writing in response to the Beginning Underage Success Through Educational Diversion (BUSTED) program, which was featured in the Emerald (“BUSTED proves successful,” ODE, June 5). While I think it’s great that BUSTED is offered for $35 as an alternative to a ridiculous $250 minor-in-possession ticket, it isn’t going to be telling us minors anything we don’t know already.
Most kids have already been educated about the effects and dangers of alcohol in high school health classes or simply by virtue of living in a society of alcohol drinkers. We know drinking and driving causes accidents and is unsafe, we know alcohol loosens inhibitions, we know a person can die of alcohol poisoning if he or she drinks too much … and yet we still drink.
The thing is, nothing is going to convince us minors that waiting another year or two will make any difference in our ability to drink responsibly, especially considering that the government/society deems those of us ages 18-20 responsible enough to vote and live on our own, not to mention join the armed forces and learn to kill people, but yet we can’t have a beer. It makes no sense.
It’s simply human psychology that if you tell young people they can’t have something, they’re going to want it, particularly when they see older people using it. In much of Europe they have no minimum drinking age, and they also have fewer cases of alcoholism than the United States does. It’s simple: If you take the forbidden mystique out of alcohol, then kids can no longer use it as a tool of rebellion and therefore won’t be so apt to binge drink. Kids should be educated so they know how alcohol will affect them and how it can be dangerous, but forbidding it will only make them idolize alcohol more.
Did anyone have much of a problem getting alcohol when they were in high school? Does any minor in college now have any problem getting it? Half of my friends are 21. Am I supposed to watch them drink and wait a year and a half before I join them because then I’ll be responsible enough? Please people, let’s stop making a big deal over drinking laws. They are pointless.
If you really want to stop kids from drinking, then change our culture to one where adults don’t drink and kids have no example to follow. Otherwise, let it be.