Amethyst Initiative raises important questions, but no solutions, concerning binge drinking

Binge drinking is a concept that I have never really understood. Why do so many people find the experience of blacking out or drinking until they throw up so enjoyable? Personally, that would be the last thing I would want to do on a weekend night.

Binge drinking is a term that no one had really heard of until recent years. It is something that is increasingly affecting teenagers in high school, as well as students of all ages attending colleges across the nation.

For a few years, many people have controversially argued that lowering the drinking age to 18 could help reduce the growing problem of binge drinking among young people in the United States. Recently, people have begun to take the argument for lowering the drinking age more seriously, and have become more willing to take initiatives toward finding a solution.

Here at St. Joe's, there has been a lot of conversation and debate over the lecture that occurred last week which discussed the Amethyst Initiative. The Amethyst Initiative is a proposal to bring about more serious conversation concerning lowering the drinking age on college campuses.

This proposal has been discussed lately due to the fact that binge drinking has been steadily increasing throughout universities across the country.

Many believe that by lowering the drinking age the United States can be similar to European countries, where young adults and teenagers are more cultured when it comes to drinking, and know how to handle themselves more maturely with alcohol.

This may be a misconception, though, as one of the facts brought up by Professor George Dowdall of the Sociology Department at the lecture was that European countries have as much of a problem with binge drinking as the United States does - if not more of one.

Before hearing the panel this past Wednesday, I believed that lowering the drinking age was the best solution for binge drinking in the United States. However, after listening to the different statistics that were presented during the lecture, I realized that, considering the current party culture which surrounds all of our generation, lowering the drinking age to 18 could only be for the worst.

I have heard of people I knew growing up drinking as young as the age of 12 or 13. It is possible that they got the idea of "drinking is cool" from their older siblings, or it could be from things they saw in the media.

In almost every episode of shows like "One Tree Hill", "The OC", or "Gossip Girl", the main characters - who are supposedly high school students, despite the fact the actors playing them look like they are in their thirties - are often seen drinking alcohol.

The influence of alcohol is seen everywhere, and it has obviously had a strong impact on our generation. Never before have colleges had to try so hard to keep their students on campus during weekends so they can participate in safer activities than drinking off-campus.

Considering that binge drinking often begins in high school for most students, perhaps similar precautions should be used on high school students as well.

It seems that the thrill of binge drinking comes largely from the fact that it is forbidden - the risk is half the fun. I know several people who are 21 and older that have said the second they turned 21, they did not see why they spent so long drinking in the large quantities that they had. The fun had escaped the whole process when they were actually allowed to drink however much they wanted.

If we lower the drinking age, we could possibly have teenagers starting to drink even younger, and in larger numbers, than today.

Although binge drinking at young age is cause for concern in this country, the real issue does not seem to be about what the age is that we are legally allowed to drink, but rather how we handle ourselves when we do drink. If you are a 25 year old drinking to get wasted out of your mind, you may have more of a problem than a 16 year old sneaking beer.

The Amethyst Initiative is a commendable attempt at diminishing a much larger problem, but it seems unlikely that it could even put a dent in the problem.