How old are you?

As scantily clad girls breeze right into any bar in downtown Athens, I wonder if the bouncer noticed that she looked like a high school freshman. He barely glances at my ID when I hand it to him. There are always going to be ways to get around the rules, especially in college towns like Athens. Fake IDs may hang on many of the bar walls, but I have only seen one girl turned away from any club. That said lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 isn’t going to answer many of the problems that face university and college officials.

In July, 128 presidents and chancellors of colleges and universities around the nation began a petition called the Amethyst Initiative to convince lawmakers to take a look at the current drinking age and reassess. One of the problems that the Amethyst Initiative points out is that binge-drinking has become a huge concern on most campuses across the country, and the age restriction of 21 and up is not helping curtail students drinking more than is safe.

If we lower the age limit to 18, binge drinking will not end just because underage drinkers will suddenly be allowed to purchase a drink. According to Students Against Destructive Decisions, Adults age 21 or older who had first used alcohol before age 21 were more likely than adults who had their first drink at age 21 or older to be classified with alcohol dependence or abuse. Lowering the drinking age will create a new level of abuse, dependence, and addiction. Many 18-year-olds are still in high school and are relatively uneducated about drinking. Rather than seeing underage college freshmen stumbling around, we will see high school freshman puking on the side of the streets.

The important part of what the Amethyst Initiative stands for is opening debate about this issue. Lowering the drinking age without learning how to educate young adults is not going to stem drinking problems on campuses. The key aspect that lawmakers and college officials should be looking at is new solutions for education. However, until there is a better solution to prevent students dying of toxic alcohol levels or driving home intoxicated, lawmakers should keep the age limit at 21. Of course students will continue to get around the law, but a quick fix isn’t going to solve the ultimate problem of binge drinking.