VERMONT, OTHER STATES CONSIDER LOWERING DRINKING AGE

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[Note: Once someone is a adult citizen, there are no grounds under the
Constitution for such invidious distinctions as the drinking prohibition
for younger adults]

AP - More than two decades after the country established a uniform
drinking age of 21, a nascent movement is afoot to allow 18- to
20-year-olds to legally buy alcohol under some circumstances. Proponents
say the higher age hasn't kept young people from consuming alcohol and
has instead driven underage consumption underground, particularly on
college campuses.

"Our laws aren't working. They're not preventing underage drinking. What
they're doing is putting it outside the public eye," Vermont state Sen.
Hinda Miller said. "So you have a lot of kids binge drinking. They get
sick, they get scared and they get into trouble and they can't call
because they know it's illegal."

A committee of the Vermont Senate approved Miller's bill to have a task
force weigh the pros and cons of rolling back the drinking age and make
a recommendation to the Legislature early next year. Organizations and
lawmakers in other states are toying with similar ideas.

In South Dakota, Flandreau lawyer N. Bob Pesall has drafted an
initiative petition to allow 19- and 20-year-olds to legally buy beer no
stronger than 3.2 percent alcohol.

In Missouri, a group is using the Internet social networking sites
Facebook and Meetup to try to collect more than 100,000 signatures to
get a measure on the ballot to lower the drinking age to 18.

In South Carolina and Wisconsin, lawmakers have proposed allowing active
duty military personnel younger than 21 to buy alcohol. A similar
proposal was rejected last year in New Hampshire.

And last year, former Middlebury College president John McCardell
started Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit that favors allowing 18- to
20-year-olds to legally buy booze once they've completed an alcohol
education program.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4363903

CHOOSE RESPONSIBILITY
http://www.chooseresponsibility.org

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