June 12, 2006 -- My email in-box regularly bursts with offers, enticements and press releases, some of which I peruse, most of which I ignore and trash. One recent unsolicited missive, however, caught my attention immediately with its subject line: “Underage Drinking in Decline: More Progress Needed”

Delving into the copy, I found that I had received a release from an organization called Pundit on Demand, in this instance penned by James E. Copple, Executive Director of the International Institute for Alcohol Awareness. A “national expert on alcohol-related problems,” Mr. Copple first announced that according to a recent report, “alcohol use” among teens is down from 51% in 1991 to 43% in the past year. This he trumpets as a good thing, quickly adding that “greater energy and diligence” is still required. To this end, he champions six goals, which include the adoption and vigorous enforcement of “effective policies to restrict youth access to alcohol in all venues” and the education of parents about “new trends in the number of young people binge drinking.”

Regular readers of World of Beer will not be surprised to learn that I find Mr. Copple’s views myopic at best and idiotic at worst. This is the same kind of thinking that led North Americans to Prohibition, and we all remember how well that worked. Bar adults of under 21 years of age from the enjoyment and appreciation of alcohol and you open the door to legions of perfectly legal, 21-year-old drunkards, loaded on the thrill of a otherwise benign beverage that has for years been held off-limits to them and so glorified as the proverbial “forbidden fruit.”

Instead of treating men and women who are old enough to vote and go to war like “children,” as Mr. Copple refers to under-21’s in his release, why not educate them on the responsible enjoyment of beer, wine and spirits? Instead of scaring parents with dire figures on “binge drinking,” which by some definitions means as little as three or five drinks over the course of an evening, why not help them teach their offspring about alcohol as a sociable beverage that also serves well as a complement to meals? Instead of pressuring college and university administrations to curtail the availability of alcohol on their campuses, why not encourage them to offer informative and educational events such as tastings and beer or wine dinners?

And further, instead of filling my in-box with anti-alcohol propaganda thinly disguised as punditry, why not initiate a dialogue about the best ways in which to curtail the abuses of alcohol that actually do occur?

Search The Real Beer Library For More Articles Related To: anti-alcohol, International Institute for Alcohol Awareness

Feedback?

We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact SBWoB by clicking on the link below. Or you can add your comments when you sign up for the World of Beer Update, a mid-month e-mail newsletter that brings even more of the world of beer to your computer.

Send Feedback To: beaumont@worldofbeer.com