He does know there is scientific evidence that brain development is hampered by the consumption of alcohol? He also does know that brains are developing until possibly the age of 23 in some cases?

21 is a good age. As a 23 year old, I can attest that decision making skills aren't fully developed until at least the age of 21 in the average human being.

Why don't they lower it to "0"? Maybe we could eliminate Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in babys born to irresponsible, addicted mothers. After all being responsible for actions seems to be becoming outdated.

I'm an addiction therapist. I IMPLORE all of you, please don't push this! Too many kids already find out that earlier alcohol consumption triggers an addictive response. We don't need more alcoholics, and the "drink responsibly" mantra is insufficient.

Why would anyone with a brain drink alcohol? What single thing has done more to cause human suffering than has drinking alcohol? To drink yourself into a stupor and call it having fun makes me think those who do so, never had any real fun! Why not hit yourself in the head with a hammer every day, the effect is about the same? The human race would be infinately better off never drinking alcohol. Evil and conspiring men in the last days, amen!

As an European citizen, I've been able to have,buy,order and/or give a beer to a friend ever since i can remember. My parents used to send me, as a kid, to the corner shop to buy beer for them during lunch if the beer were to run out. Drinking age has never been enforced and underage drinkers have never been frowned upon. Naturally, kids grow up with no taboo regarding alcohol and learn their limits quickly.
I moved to Florida during my college years and i saw more drunken stupidity and car accidents in my first semester there than i had seen here in my whole life. Keg stands and beer funnels are an ingenious American invention in order for kids-people to get drunk faster and with a lesser quantity of alcohol. Fast drinking is never good, all people know that here in Europe and rarely do it.
After Florida i moved to China. Same story there as here in the EU. Very little problems with drunken raging teenagers.
As a conclusion, I'm NOT advocating drinking. I'm just saying that Europeans and others are not worse off because of the lower drinking age. Yet, we are more mature as teenagers.

this is a good step in the right direction. i dont believe that should be able to legally drink at 18, i would say the lowest we should go is 19 cause most will be out of high school or in college. the current legislation on age limit i believe promotes binge drinking and teaches young people the wrong approach to drinking. if madd wants things to change then they should promote stiffer charges and penalties to drunk drivers ect... and better public transportation. but lets get real, this will never get passed in the USA. other countries around the world have lower drinking ages i to me it seems that they are not binge drinking, but i could be wrong.

Nope. I don't agree with Mr. Bassis. 18 yrs. of age is too young to have it legal for them to be drinking. They are not mature enough! Keep it where it is! In fact I wouldn't mind if it if the legal age was even higher!

The United States has the highest legal drinking age in the world! You can get executed, or decide someone else should die (as part of a jury), but cannot be trusted to drink?

I'm still waiting for my brain to develope.

Don't these college beaurocrats remember what it's like to be 18, 19 or 20? Why didn't they stop to think that every underage college kid is going to use their 5tup1d initiative as justification to drink?

It seems these collegians have joined the breweries in a money making scheme. The NCAA allows beer advertisements for money, and now the schools themselves want part of the action.

Another reason is if they expell a dumb kid for drinking, they loose that tuition and book revenue as well as any donations from mommy and daddy.

Many will say the Europeans don't have drinking problems. Do we want to be like Europeans? Remember, they think blue jeans are fasionable, Jerry Lewis is funny and goat cheese is yummy.

regardless of the motive, lowering the legal drinking age gives the impression of tacit approval. I think other methods of dealing with under-age drinking should be tried. Banning beer ads from college sports, as advocated by 400 major college presidents, athletic directors, and head coaches would be worth trying, but the NCAA is too corrupt to be have to try and replace that revenue.

While the other college presidents in Utah are asking the NCAA to ban alcohol advertising on sports broadcasts, this one wants to lower the drinking age. What a loser of a proposition...it will only encourage more binge drinking on campuses.

I would agree with "Thumbs Down" about lowering the drinking age to 18 years old.

I feel it would be a big mistake.

What rational do these Presidents use to justify their postion?

I grew up in Milwaukee, the beer capital of the country during the 70's. The "favorite" thing to do then for many high school seniors and juniors was to have a "fake" ID card showing that a high school senior or junior who was really 16 or 17 was at least 18, the legal drinking age. This would allow the high school junior or senior to purchase beer, wine, etc.; go to taverns; attend "keggers"; etc. One thing I noticed is that a high school junior or senior could usually manage to look 18, but he or she could seldom look 21. President Bassis is not only reversing the clock among college students but also he is condemning high school juniors and seniors and the people they may hit in a car wreck, etc., to an unnecessary crippled life or death because some drunk high school junior or senior got behind the wheel and ruined his/her life and some poor innocent persons too. There is a study, I think, that was done at Stanford University showing that the typical person is not emotionally mature, on average, until 21 years of age to add credence to what "Thumbs Down" says.

Using this same logic if we made murder legal we would have fewer murders.

This is just a way for the colleges to escape liability for their students drinking on campus. Colleges have been found liable for failing to prohibit underage drinking. So, this is their answer.

As a Westminster alum, I am shocked and frankly disappointed by President Bassis' decision to be a part of this! What will it accomplish? There is no proof in the premise of this argument, lowering the drinking age will not stop binge drinking. Come on!

Those of you who think this is a bad idea, how do you explain the fact that the US, with the highest age for alcohol consumption, has a greater incidence of alcohol binging and abuse among young people?

Fact is all countries has more permissive rules about alcohol and all of those countries have fewer incidences.

How does that fit into your perception??

Criminalizing something promotes abuse. Decriminalizing encourages responsible use.

isn't that what we want??

Boy someone didn't send him the memo about the other college presidents asking for a ban on advertising alcohol. Hmmm...big disconnect. Does he read any journals describing the massive problem of binge drinking at Universities across the nation? Our nations Universities cannot become expensive taverns.

Not mature enough to drink at 18 - but mature enough to fight and be killed protecting my country. Me thinks something not right here.

Any college kid, or anyone under 21 who wants to drink, can get alcohol one way or another. They get creative, and are forced to disrepect law, which at the same time minimizes respect for other laws / law enforcement officers.
After high school, many if not most kids are on their own. Parents, teachers have done their jobs. It is time to allow them to live and learn at 18. This includes being allowed to drink alcohol. Just say NO to double-standards !!!!

An 18 year old and a 21 year old are in my opinion at the same maturity level. . . 18 year olds are in college and should be able to drink if they wish they can do everything else a 21 year old can except gamble if you are old enough to serve in the military and die for your country you should be able to drink if you wish

Seems like a positive initiative to me. I don't think it will change much, but it's a subject worth talking about in different ways. "Abstinence-only" is so doomed to fail when you're talking about young adults and the things they want to do. Congrats to Bassis, I imagine he'll take some heat for this.

Nice to know MADD's mission-creep continues apace, now they're telling parents what schools their kids should go to! Imagine how unpopular MADD would be in this state if they chose to fight DUIs by attacking and opposing absolutely anything involving DRIVING?

If a typical person is not emotionally mature until 21 years old are they mature enough to die for their country in our current world obligations?(WARS)

this would be a good move.
Just look at evidence not at religion and you should get a reasonable answer.

Great job college presidents. Let's move the problem from your campuses and on to the roads. Sorry, the head in the sand approach won't work.

The reason the legal drinking age is 21 is because people proved, on the whole, that they could not "drink responsibly" when they were 18. So they lost the privilege. There is nothing to be gained by repeating the mistake. And judging by the amount of damage, illness and general misery that alcohol is party to (no pun intended), if not directly responsible, I question whether there really is such a thing as responsible drinking. The very concept is a contradiction in terms.

"Criminalizing something promotes abuse. Decriminalizing encourages responsible use."

So if we decriminalize heroine, cocaine, meth, etc, that will promote "responsible" use?

If we decriminalize carrying concealed weapons, and allow ANYBODY to carry a concealed weapon, the will promote "responsible" use?

College party-goers will drink more responsibly if they can drink legally?

To lower the crime rate, all we have to do is abolish all of the laws.

Decriminalize everything?

Problems solved.

Instead of lowering the drinking age, let's do what would be the best for all, including the "responsible ones", making alcohol illegal. Then teach people that there are an infinate number of better choices to make that are better than drinking alcohol. I doubt that any individual reaches the end of his or her days and says, "boy, I wish I had drank more alcohol throughout my life!" If something is bad, then lets not pretend that it is O.K. and come up with a host of reasons why it is o.k. Thank you. Bob Andersen

To Ridgerunner: What single other thing has caused so much human suffering than consuming alcohol? Answer: Organized religion, to name just one. It is ironic that we can expect 18 year olds to go to war and "die for our country", but they can't be allowed to drink a beer legally. To me, that is ridiculous. I'm not for or against the age being lowered, but it would be interesting to see some alcohol related automobile accident statistics from other countries where the drinking age is lower than 21.

At 18 after high school I was out and about on my own. If you can send your kids off to college or the military you can let them drink. We can smoke at 18 or 19 in UT and that is just as bad in my opinion. What's worse is that we can buy porn and that is more addicting at 18, Get real people, 18 is a perfect age to buy alcohol, since we can vote at 18, we have the right to vote the issue!Either way we drink and party!

Let's do what the 18 year old wants......isn't that what we adults always do? They know better - Even better - let's just remove all the laws on drug abuse. That will make our society stronger........

I think we should have removed alcohol a long time ago and made it as illegal as any other destructive drug - the only reason we haven't is because people like the Dean of Westminster likes to drink. Wake up people, change the age or keep it the same, it doesn't matter - we will not win either way.

what you would expect in Utah. A bunch of reactionary Puritans. The real issue for most of you is -- you don't drink, don't think anyone should drink and aren't willing to consider anything that might tar you as a "liberal".

The legal age for drinking matters little. The major issue is in how alcohol consumption is glamorized and glorified in our culture. People who are fun drink and those who do not drink are boring, stiff, and self righteous.

We need to change our approach toward drinking. Alcohol should not be the focus of all of our social events. Commercials should not air glamorizing drinking. Drinking is a social ill and costs society millions of dollars yearly and more importantly tens of thousands of lives annually.

It is nice to talk about drinking responsibily but for so many this is not a reality. Women and children are beaten at the hands of ugly drunks, marriages are destroyed, poverty is inflicted, and all the while an add runs on TV showing everyone what a great time they can have if they are out drinking with their friends.

Reality is very sad.

I think it is humorous to hear the opinions that imply that ALL high school kids are just chomping at the bit to drink and get drunk and that they do all they can to raid mommy and daddy's liquor cabinet and spend all their saturdays covertly drunk out of their gourds, so we may as well legalize it and make it so they don't have to do it to fight against the taboo, since ALL of them do it anyway.

I personally do not like the idea of more and more young kids potentially driving impaired. Driving fatalities are already the leading cause of death among teens and we drunk drivers kill about 15,000 people every year. So with the laws the way they are now, many high schoolers and even college age kids are concerned enough about getting caught that it likely keeps this to a minimum (the ones who just don't care about anything but themselves and drive drunk anyway, legal age or not).

Let's not add to the madness by encouraging immature drivers to drink to hopefully "learn" responsibility before they kill someone in the process.

This goes right along with the other story about Utah having the highest birthrate. If we lower the drinking age maybe we could really shatter some records.

There are 18 year olds still in High Schools!! What is going to stop them from buying for the whole group? They could just lower the drinking age to 12.

...meant to say "we experience 15000 deaths each year from drunk drivers"...not "we drunk drivers"...reads pretty funny the other way, considering I don't drink. =)

I agree with Hmmm but I don't think Mr. Bassis was saying to decriminalize all drink just to reduce the age. I also agree with Kleet, I think lowering the drink age gives us, todays youth the ability to test our limits and decide on how much we can handle. If people in this want to state that lowering the drinking age will increase the number of drinks are naive, visit about 90% of high school or college parties and you will realize drinking is already a hugh issue.
Parents wouldn't you rather have your 18 year old drink infront of you at dinner and then stay home, or should they sneak out to that party and drink there.
Last I would like to address the last issue of MADD. In this state the problem is not with the amount of people that drink under age and drive it is the problem that of public transit stops before bars close. Ask yourself, no haling cabs in Utah (a law) or a two hour wait, and no public transit after 1 AM. How does state legislator expect intoxicated individuals to get home.

You are a wingnut. There is no evidence at all that permissiveness lowers binge drinking except for the fact that they now drink 24-7! And the US isn't the nation with the most consumption, not even close.

There is no evidenc anywhere that binge drinking is correlated with strict regulation. The permissive argument in hedonistic at best.

I am ever astounded at the disconnect between society's obsession with "recreational drinking" and all of the damage, death and destruction brought on by drinking. We act embarrassed if our laws aren't like every other state in the nation, but would we feel so embarrassed if we had to help out at the next fatal crash alchohol causes, and we had to go tell the families that their loved ones were killed? I cannot, cannot understand the disconnect. I don't understand why I know people that have had DUI after DUI and yet our laws really do nothing. What fools we are to promote drinking. It seems like we all believe that the drunk driver hurts someone else's family, so we look away and ignore the problem. Wow, what suffering would be relieved if all we did was stop alchohol.

I've donated my last dollar to Westminster. Thanks.

I lived in a small NE Iowa town that has a small Lutheran college. I can tell you that the college administration while not condoning illegal drinking, fostered it by not inforcing there own rules. If they had expelled students who continued to break the no drinking rule on campus this would have sent a clear message to the student population. College presidents do not want to deal effectively with this growing problem for many reasons, by lowering the drinking age to 18 they will insure that this problem will be passed onto the high schools. Before considering this radical step why don't they rigorously enforce the rules already in place on their campuses.

All of you who think 18-yr-olds are responsible enough to drink can pitch in and buy me a new car, to replace the one that was destroyed when it was hit by an 18-yr-old drunk driver on an interstate in Chicago.

As for the drinking age in Europe, let's not draw hasty conclusions. "Correlation proves causation" is a logical fallacy.

Rather than addressing the issue head on (by regulating drinking by limiting pubs/bars around campuses enforcing the age limit with campus police, etc...) it looks like in their infinite wisdom these college presidents simply want to pass the buck back to high school. If only every college student could drink we wouldn't be responsible for their actions, must be passing through their heads. Be serious and grow up. Lowering the drinking age will just in a few years cause it to be lowered even more as high schools will want to lift the ban so they also don't have to be accountable for their students actions. Too many people die from drunk driving every year for us to simply say that lowering the drinking age will curtail drinking because you've removed the forbidden fruit label. Alcohol kills, especially among the young. Try enforcing the law before simply abandoning it and passing the buck!

has reared its head. 21 is the drinking age across most of the US (if not all), not just here in 'puritanical' Utah. I hope the huge chip you carry on your shoulder has not permanently damaged your spine.

I personally feel that lowering the drinking age to 19 would be appropriate. This would take away the problem of high schoolers buying it for themselves (although it's not exactly hard to find someone older than you to buy it if you really want it), and potentially help curb binge drinking in college. I witnessed the whole binge drinking thing firsthand in college; before going out dancing at a club, the ones not yet 21 would throw back shots of whatever was available--tequila, rum, usually vodka--because they wouldn't be able to buy it once they got to the club. The 21 year olds would maybe buy two mixed drinks at the club--not nearly as potent as four straight shots at home. College kids do that for football games, too, although I don't see that stopping anytime soon in Utah since alcohol isn't available at the stadiums, anyway. It's all called "pre-gaming." Most of my friends drank less once they actually turned 21; there was no edge to it anymore, and of course it's an expensive habit when you're buying it for yourself and not mooching it off of someone older.

Let them drink at 18.
But don't let them drive until 21.

This experiment was tried in the 70's. I remember when the legal limit was dropped from 21 to 18. What happened was interesting...the levels of 18-21 bing drinking went up. Drunk driving and alcohol deaths skyrocketed. Having lived through the era, having experienced both sides, leave the age at 21.

Yes, there are laws not being enforced. Yes, high schoolers and underage college students are drinking. The arguments haven't changed, whether it is alcohol or drugs. The cost to the individual and their future is too high. The lost potential to an individual and their family, with the accompaning scars lasts for generations. A young persons "rights to drink" or whatever does not warrant the pain it causes to friends, family and the future.

Keep the age at 21.

Maybe all you critics need to go back and read the article again. Bassis clearly states that he signed the initiative to advocate exploring new ideas and approaches to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol. It also clearly states that he DID NOT sign to advocate changing the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. It is obvious to many that just because it is illegal to drink alcohol before age 21, doesn't deter kids from doing so anyway. It isn't working people so let's try something different. Stop putting your interpretations and words into the mouths of others.

I Really do not see the difference any ways kids who want to drink at 18 will drink at 18 . There are so many different ways to get alchohol it is ridiculous. AT least kids these days would just get it legally.

I DON'T GET IT! Why is it when a legal product or rule becomes a problem in society (i.e. hand guns, trans fat, fireworks, driving SUVs, burning flags) the solution many people come up with it is to make the product or rule illegal.

But then, when society has a problem with an illegal product or rule (i.e. alcohol to minors, cocaine, marijuana, graffiti, illegal immigration) the solution many people come up with is to make the product or rule legal.

Am I the only one who sees the irony in all this?