2008 Woodie Awards
Underage drinkers consume more less often
those not yet 21 risk getting charged with possesion and other acts to booze it up
Erica Flint | U-WIRE
Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: News
At age 16, students get their first taste of freedom - their driver's license.
At age 18, students receive affirmation of their freedom - they are labeled legal adults and given the right to vote.
However, some would argue that it is not until students hit age 21 - and are given the right to legally consume alcohol - that they actually begin to act like an adult.
Twenty-one can, by all accounts, be considered a rite of passage in the United States.
Police Department Detective Sgt. John Buchholz has witnessed 32 years of activity in Oxford, Florida, and he has found that students' drinking patterns seem to change when they hit that magic number 21.
"The last day you are going to be 'wild' is on your 21st birthday," Buchholz said. "Society said 18, you are an adult, but in college the real rite of passage is 21, that's when you start acting like an adult."
Drinking habits change when you turn 21, according to a 2000 study. Of age students tend to drink on more occasions, than underage students, but when underage students do drink, they consume more drinks, according to "Environmental Correlates of Underage Alcohol Use and Related Problems of College Students," a study done by Henry Wechsler, Meichun Kuo, Hang Lee and George W. Dowdall, published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
As far as getting caught-Buchholz said that about half of the alcohol related offenses they charge people of all ages with is possession, while the other half are public intoxication. Although Buchholz said that since there is a greater percentage of students who are under 21, there is a greater opportunity to charge students with possession.
As many college age students will lament, the drinking age was not always 21.
The drinking age of 21, however, is not a national law. It was in 1984 that Congress said they would withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds to states that did not prohibit selling alcohol to individuals under 21. After four years all states except Louisiana - which held out until 1995 - complied.
At age 18, students receive affirmation of their freedom - they are labeled legal adults and given the right to vote.
However, some would argue that it is not until students hit age 21 - and are given the right to legally consume alcohol - that they actually begin to act like an adult.
Twenty-one can, by all accounts, be considered a rite of passage in the United States.
Police Department Detective Sgt. John Buchholz has witnessed 32 years of activity in Oxford, Florida, and he has found that students' drinking patterns seem to change when they hit that magic number 21.
"The last day you are going to be 'wild' is on your 21st birthday," Buchholz said. "Society said 18, you are an adult, but in college the real rite of passage is 21, that's when you start acting like an adult."
Drinking habits change when you turn 21, according to a 2000 study. Of age students tend to drink on more occasions, than underage students, but when underage students do drink, they consume more drinks, according to "Environmental Correlates of Underage Alcohol Use and Related Problems of College Students," a study done by Henry Wechsler, Meichun Kuo, Hang Lee and George W. Dowdall, published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
As far as getting caught-Buchholz said that about half of the alcohol related offenses they charge people of all ages with is possession, while the other half are public intoxication. Although Buchholz said that since there is a greater percentage of students who are under 21, there is a greater opportunity to charge students with possession.
As many college age students will lament, the drinking age was not always 21.
The drinking age of 21, however, is not a national law. It was in 1984 that Congress said they would withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds to states that did not prohibit selling alcohol to individuals under 21. After four years all states except Louisiana - which held out until 1995 - complied.
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