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For all alcohol related fatalities not associated with automobiles, raising the drinking age to 21 has had no discernible effect on fatalities associated with alcohol. Alcohol-related suicides, accidents, drownings, murders, and alcohol poisoning rates have shown no decline associated with the drinking age. Death or injury from alcohol overdose has become a great concern to parents, teachers, high school and college administrators since the drinking age was raised to 21. This concern is particularly relevant, because college drinking deaths increased between 1999 and 2005. 

Choose Responsibility Blog

Man gets two holes-in-one, the second on this
birthday Tuesday
Manitoba stories

One traffic stop led to another, for Thompson drug police.
Manitoba stories

Thanks for following responsibility in the news with us this week.  Here’s a top to bottom review of the articles we’ve looked at since Monday.

UK Plays Defense

Harvard and U. South Carolina assess campus alcohol cultures

Minnesota seeks to loosen liquor laws, slightly

And if you’re celebrating a holiday this weekend, we at [CR] wish you a safe one.

Choose Responsibility Blog

Have you ever wondered why the drinking age was raised to, and has remained, 21? We were curious too, and we found a few reasons cited by MLDA 21 supporters. Supporters’ reasons for upholding the current age seemed exaggerated, so we did some research of our own and found that the 21 year old drinking age does not achieve the “primary reasons cited by supporters” stated below.

The primary reasons for upholding MLDA 21, cited by supporters of the law:

• It saves lives by preventing alcohol-related traffic fatalities among 18-20 year-olds and the rest of the population.
• Since the developing adolescent brain is affected differently by alcohol than the adult brain, the 21 year-old drinking age protects adolescents and young adults from its potentially negative consequences.
• It prevents adolescents from gaining access to alcohol. Some research has found that the earlier one starts to drink, the more likely he or she will experience alcohol dependence and related problems later in life.

Seem bold? We thought so too! Our research has shown that the arguments above are overstated:

• There is no demonstrable cause and effect relationship between the 21 year-old drinking age and the decline in alcohol-related fatalities. While its proponents may claim that the 21 year-old drinking age is solely responsible, we found that many factors–increased seat belt use, development of airbag and anti-lock brake technologies, advent of the “designated driver,” and stigmatization of drunk driving to name just a few–had the effect of making our roads and vehicles safer over the past two and a half decades.
• The claims of neurological research on alcohol and the adolescent brain have, in many cases, been overstated. Statements like MADD’s “teenagers who drink too much may lose as much as 10 percent of their brainpower” often exaggerate the findings of research findings based on data gathered from rat populations, leading to an oversimplified and alarmist approach to very complicated neurological research. Stay tuned here for more information on alcohol and the brain…
• The context in which one first consumes alcohol is as, if not more, important as the age of initiation. Age is just a number. Scientific and anthropological data from around the world have shown that the context in which alcohol is first consumed cultural attitudes towards drinking are much more important in determining whether or not an individual will have alcohol-related problems later in life.

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A Manitoba couple convicted of keeping dozens of dogs and puppies in filthy, unsanitary conditions has been ordered to pay ,000 in fines and court costs and banned from owning or possessing dogs for five years.
Manitoba stories

Following a wash-out of his previous business season, the owner of a flood-ravaged Winnipeg-area campground is struggling to make his operation float.
Manitoba stories

Our friends at Online Colleges shared some sobering facts on college drinking with us this week, and the information proved too salient not to share it with you. While we are keenly aware of the pervasiveness of binge drinking on college campuses, reading cold hard facts–especially on death–painfully reminds us of the ineffectiveness of MLDA 21. We’ll be examining each of these 10 truths individually in the next several days.

1. Nearly 2,000 students die from alcohol related injuries each year.

2. College drinking deaths rose 27.6% between 1999 and 2005.

3. Freshmen account for nearly one-third of college student deaths.

4. 53% of students have experienced depression, and less than one-third seek help.

5. At least one student has died from drinking in college hazing rituals every year for the last four decades.

6. In 82% of hazing deaths, copious amounts of alcohol are a common denominator.

7. Chico State University student Matthew Carrington died from binging on water.

8. Eighty-three of the college student deaths between 1999 and 2005 were of underage students.

9. At a .15 BAC, the chances of a car accident are 200% higher.

10. At Colorado State University, a student died of alcohol poisoning with a BAC of .436.

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Now that city hall has transferred all public health inspection services to the province, they can start thinking about handing over paramedic services to Broadway, too.
Manitoba stories

Two prominent Manitoba aboriginal leaders are accusing a junior hockey league of racial discrimination after it ruled that a First Nations team must play its home playoff games at a neutral site, rather than in its reserve community.
Manitoba stories