 "Photo: Jake Butzer")
At age 18 Cassidy Siedschlag was making her own car payments, car insurance payment, taking out student loans, working two jobs and going to school.
She could buy a pack of cigarettes, vote for the next president and sign a lease on an apartment. But she couldn't drink an alcoholic beverage.
Now, age 21 and a senior at USD, Siedschlag said she remembers feeling frustrated that she couldn't drink, despite feeling mature enough to handle consuming alcohol.
"I felt that it was unfair I couldn't drink because I felt mature at 18, but because I wasn't able to drink at 18, I feel I engaged in more risky activities and tried to hide that I was drinking," she said.
Many college students find themselves in similar situations, taking on the responsibilities that come with being an adult, but not gaining quite all of the privileges of being an adult.
According to Choose Responsibility, a non-profit organization dedicated to starting a grass-roots movement to lower the drinking age and bring the debate to the public eye, 90 percent of people who drink began drinking before age 21.
History Behind 21
During the 1970s, during the Vietnam War, 29 states lowered the drinking age to 18, 19 or 20. Only a decade later, with drunk driving cases on the rise, states faced a difficult decision- raise the drinking age or lose federal highway funds.
By 1988, almost every state raised its drinking age to 21.
Now, with 40 years in between Vietnam and the War on Terror, the debate is resurfacing, but with new spokespeople: educators and researchers.
Grace Kronenberg, assistant to the director at Choose Responsibility in Middlebury, Vt., has been involved in research surrounding underage drinking since she was pursuing her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College in Vermont. Now working under the former president of Middlebury College, John McCardell, Kronenberg works every day to get the word out about their cause.
"Our central thinking is that what legal age 21 has done is really exacerbate the problem of excessive drinking and made it impossible for parents and educators to enforce," she said. "This policy has really been one that has lead to extremes in (behaviors) of 16- to 24-year-olds."
Recognizing the Problem
USD instructor John Korkow holds a bachelor's degree in alcohol and drug studies, a master's degree in community agency counseling and is currently seeking a PhD in educational psychology. In his years of educational and clinical experience, he said he doesn't believe the current drinking age has been effective for young adults.
"The logic behind (the 21 drinking age) was to make a law for people to drink at an older age," he said. "The research shows that hasn't happened."
Korkow, a proponent of Choose Responsibility's lobbying efforts, said the organization is actually research-based and is not manipulating numbers to benefit their cause, rather they are looking at reality.
"We survey youth and they are still drinking as much as youth did 20 years ago," he said.
"Pre-gaming," or drinking large amount of alcohol before going out, is one of the biggest concerns of underage drinking, Siedschlag said.
She said young adults feel pressured to try to have as much fun as the 21-year-olds, so they try to induce as much alcohol as possible before a sober event so they can sustain a "buzz" the entire evening.
"When I was a freshman and sophomore, I did drink underage," Siedschlag said. "I did it to be involved in the overall college or party scene. I drank more than I should have due to having to pre-game for football games or anything where I couldn't drink because I wasn't of age."
Kronenberg said "pre-gaming" is one of Choose Responsibility's main concerns. She said campuses are losing control over the situation and pushing drinking behind closed doors.
Developing Solutions
In 1994, USD began having a crisis team on hand for large events like Dakota Days and offering acute alcohol incident training for several groups on campus, director of Counseling Matt Stricherz said.
Stricherz said at the beginning of every year and before D-Days, the counseling department begins teaching people who have contact with students who are at a high risk for alcohol intoxication how to identify if a person has taken in too much alcohol.
"The main effect it has had is helped students understand the risk that happens when students drink in a manner when blood alcohol level rises very quickly or at a level when the central nervous system gets depressed," he said.
Krononberg said Choose Responsibility's goal isn't just to lower the drinking age, but to instate a national education and licensing program to better educate young people about alcohol.
Going through the USD training herself, Siedschlag said she thinks USD is doing a great job offering workshops and lectures dealing with drinking risks.
"I would have had no idea about the signs (of alcohol poisoning) if I hadn't gone to the workshops about alcohol related incidents," she said.
Changing the Law
Under current state law, there is a zero-tolerance policy for underage drinking in South Dakota. This means any blood alcohol level other than 0.00 would earn anyone under age 21 a minor in possession.
Korkow said he absolutely opposes the zero-tolerance policy and believes it needs to be removed.
"Zero-tolerance needs to go because it doesn't work," he said. "It tells you no matter how much you drink, your punishment is the same."
Even if the age were to be lowered, Korkow said there would still be underage drinkers, but punishments should correlate with the amount they drank. During his time working in clinics, he said it was commonplace to see young people being over treated, when they were caught drinking one or two beers.
The other issue Korkow would like to see addressed is the different ages for adulthood consolidated into one, whether it is 18 or not.
"These different ages for adulthood do not make sense to me," he said. "At 18 you can join the military, vote and your parents are no longer responsible for you."
Time for a Change
Stricherz said campuses need to be focusing on risk reduction by having enough safety nets on campus to aid students.
"It's about empowering students to have the knowledge and the skills to take action when high blood alcohol levels effect one of their classmates," he said.
Although statistics may show teen driving accidents have decreased, Korkow said organizations want people to believe that is solely because of the raised drinking age. But the reality is there are a lot of other factors, like safer vehicles and increased enrollment in driver's education courses that are inflating those statistics.
"Really what is going on is we have more youth dying of this than fewer," he said. "It is being covered up by other factors."
The primary issue is that 21-year-olds are still buying alcohol for those underage, making it a black market business, Korkow said.
"Friends who are 21 decide if someone under 21 drinks or not, not their parents, not faculty," he said. "They probably decide how much they drink as well."
Kronenberg hopes her organization's efforts can help put a stop to other problems like date rape and alcohol poisoning by allowing alcohol to enhance a social situation that all those 18 and older would be able to attend with a lower drinking age.
"We can see the problem expressed in things going on in date rapes, in other assaults, with alcohol poisoning and a whole host of other consequences as campuses push drinking off campus and into frat houses and private residences," she said. "In general it is a movement away from an endorsed situation. There are not events, like concerts, where drinking is a part of it."
Korkow, who believes USD is doing a much better job handling the issues of underage drinking than in the past, said this issue must be debated at a national level to address the generation of binge drinkers that have been created with the raised drinking age.
"The more secretive anything becomes, the more dangerous it becomes and underage drinking is done behind closed doors," he said.
Reach reporter Holly Miller at Holly.Miller@usd.edu.
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