Editorial

     Lower Drinking Age      

There have been many arguments about changing the legal drinking age in Saskatchewan. Some of the people who have been involved in the voting have said to raise it to twenty-one years of age or lower it to sixteen years of age.

According to the 2007 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, students in grades 7 to 12 say it is “really easy” for them to access alcohol. Even though Ontario‘s drinking age is 19, a significant portion of youth aged 15 and over are drinking excessively. Children who start using alcohol at 11 to 14 years of age are likely to drink heavily as they get older.

The health board says some U.S. studies show that country’s legal drinking age of 21 leads to fewer crashes among youth. Despite a drinking age of 21, American statistics for 2005 show 16 percent of drivers ages 16 to 20 who died in motor vehicle crashes had been drinking alcohol. Young men 18 to 20 years of age report driving while impaired more often than any other age group. Minimum drinking age laws are constantly and openly ignored on college campuses. Even the President’s daughter, Jenna Bush, was caught drinking underage in 2001. In March 2007, the American surgeon general reported there were 11 million underage drinkers in that country, of which 7.2 million were considered heavy drinkers, meaning they drank more than five drinks on one occasion.

The legal drinking age in Saskatchewan could be changed to sixteen years of age because a large majority or sixteen year olds already have a source of getting to alcohol and are consuming regularly. Not a lot of things would change if the drinking age was lowered if the sixteen year olds are already getting to alcohol and consuming alcohol.

There have been many ideas and concerns to changing the drinking age. Either raising it up to twenty-one years of age or lowering it to even the age of fifteen. If they lower the age to sixteen and if it doesn’t work out they way they planned, they could always change it. Or they could play it safe and either keep the drinking age how it is or raise it. Whatever they decide on, it will be the best for the province.