Josh Martin’s March 4-10 Charlatan article entitled: “Hull and Drinking” provides an interesting perspective on drinking in raucous environments, especially relevant in the wake of St. Patrick's Day. His article got me thinking about drinking policies in Ontario and how the focus should stray from preventing underage drinking to promoting safe alcohol use.
Having not moved to Ottawa until I was of age in Ontario, I have not had many drinking experiences in Hull, Que. In fact I only went drinking there once since 2008. But, being from Cornwall and witnessing the impact of 18-year-olds going to Quebec on public safety and on Eastern Ontario's economy, I believe it's high time that we lower the drinking age to 18.
There have been a number of tragedies and dangerous incidents that could have been averted had we reduced the incidents of young adults in Cornwall (and elsewhere) going to Quebec, getting drunk, acquiring alcohol illegally, and drinking either in dangerous settings or in dangerous amounts.
Furthermore, I believe that leaving the drinking age at 19 while eliminating the fifth year of high school (for students beginning high school in the 1999–2000 school year or later) has had a negative impact on public safety at university campuses across Ontario.
Policies that have emphasized harm reduction, responsible alcohol use, and protecting students from date rape and the other dangers of a good night out have given way to policies that have emphasized keeping alcohol out of the hands of 18-year-old students.
Most alarmingly, first-year students who find themselves intoxicated and in compromising situations on campus are afraid to get help from campus safety or through other means due to their desire to avoid paying punitive fines. Carleton's Student Rights and Responsibilities Policy, which governs the non-academic conduct of Carleton students, classifies underage consumption of alcohol as Category two offence (with the addition that intoxication can result in additional sanctions beyond those stipulated for the actual offence), carrying with it possible consequences of $50-500 fine and the exclusion from all extracurricular activities.
Other violations that are listed under Category two include hazing, sexual harassment, and inciting violence on campus. Anyone with some degree of common sense ought to realize these violations have a far more harmful effect on our campus community than a first-year student consuming few beers.
The one caveat to my condemning the university's heavy-handed approach is that it is extremely unlikely that Ontario would tolerate anything more moderate from the administration.
Given how easy it is to use alcohol responsibly and how easy it is to educate others about doing the same, I think we ought to accept that we have a culture in which alcohol and social exchanges play a prominent role. We have to move towards a different approach which emphasizes harm reduction and education rather than prohibition and punishment.
While some may argue that my views give students and other young adults a free pass at behaving irresponsibly and of flagrantly violating the law — a view that seems to be getting traction through our federal government's tough-on-crime initiatives, as they suggest a movement toward punishment and retribution rather than liberalization and harm reduction where it concerns soft drugs — I'm hardly alone in making these arguments.
The Amethyst Initiatives, a coalition of American university administrators, advocates lowering the drinking age to 18 across the United States. They approach alcohol and the problems that can stem from it on campuses from a harm-reduction rather than from a prohibitionist perspective, given that underage and underground drinking create a culture that encourages alcohol abuse, ignorance about alcohol and drugs in general, and a lack of respect for the law.
It's about time we encourage responsible use among young adults and we aim our cannons elsewhere, at the drunk drivers and at violent and white collar criminals who truly harm individuals and the society.