"I am shocked, shocked to learn that there is gambling going on at this establishment!" A group led by Congressman Tom Osbourne (you may remember that he coached Nebraska when it was a good team) and Dean Smith (you may remember that he coached North Carolina when it was a good team) have now joined forces to try and convince the NCAA to ban alcohol advertisements during collegiate sporting events. From a press release:

New polling data released by CSPI today suggests an overwhelming majority of Americans think colleges are wrong to take advertising money from beer companies while trying to discourage underage and binge drinking on campus.



“College officials say they want to deter underage and binge drinking, and stop the riots that disrupt campus communities and blot schools’ reputations,” said George A. Hacker, director of CSPI’s alcohol policies project. “But too often, they’re complicit with beer marketers in pitching beer to their students and young fans. That totally undercuts their responsibilities to the health and safety of their students.”



According to the poll, seven in 10 Americans say beer companies that advertise on sports know that their ads appeal to underage persons. Two-thirds believe beer companies use sports to reach and advertise to persons under the legal drinking age.

First, let's have a lesson in realism. College students are very good at two things. The first is not paying attention to advertisements. I have never met a college student who was not incredibly able when it came to the remote control -- hardly a commercial gets watched. The second thing college students are good at is drinking. College students drink. Alcohol. Beer. Liquor. College students have been drinking probably since universities were first founded. Until 1984, many did so legally. In that year, a number of special interest groups (such as MADD) pushed Congress to raise the drinking age. Since this type of law did not concern interstate commerce and had always been under the purview of the states, Congress accomplished this by mandating that states raise the age to 21 or lose a portion of their federal highway funds. A similar law dealing with speed limits was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in South Dakota v. Dole. So, all of the states gave into fiscal pressure, meaning that you can now adopt a child and fight in a war before you can legally have a beer.



Did this stop 18-20 year olds from drinking? Of course not. Only now, instead of being able to drink out in the open, college students electing to drink began doing so behind closed doors. Universities that could previously monitor drinking to ensure it was done more safely now began cracking down on it, enforcing no-alcohol policies that led to a culture of binge drinking (drinking a great deal in private before moving to a public "no alcohol" setting). This is in fact much more unsafe than simply allowing drinking to occur out in the open.



The argument against this point is of course that the students make the ultimate choice. It is not the law that forces binge drinking -- students choose to do this. There are good reasons to raise the drinking age, including trying to limit drunk driving and alcohol-related illnesses, injuries and deaths. In addition, by having zero-tolerance rules, colleges can limit their own legal liability for alcohol-related problems, which is a key concern in this day of solving problems through litigation. But any visitor to a college campus would quickly see that these goals are not being achieved.



This type of legislation is a step in the wrong direction. As the student newspaper at Duke argues, efforts should not be made to pretend that drinking can be prevented at college campuses. Parents and administrators should not be shocked that there is gambling going on, when they gambled and their parents before them gambled. Instead, efforts should be made to teach responsible drinking, including preventing drunk driving and binge drinking. If alcohol was once again brought out into the open, colleges could help control the negative effects of drinking, making everyone safer. This can only be done by recognizing that all adults should be able to drink and returning the drinking age to 18.

Posted in: