New Jersey Lawmakers Tell College Officials They Will Not Lower the Drinking Age

Members of the New Jersey Senate Education Committee reinforced their support for the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age during a hearing where college leaders and law enforcement officials discussed how to tackle underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses. Read the complete article from NJ.com.

Leading Health and Safety Experts Agree: The 21 Law Saves Lives

Learn more about MADD’s response to the Amethyst Initiative and the call by some university presidents to lower the drinking age.

Sign MADD's pledge and join a broad coalition of congressional and public health leaders and citizens to stand strongly united in support of the 21 minimum drinking age.

Colleges and Binge Drinking

An editorial in The New York Times dismisses the call by some college professors to lower the drinking age as “on the wrong track with its suggestion that the nation reconsider the legal drinking age of 21.”

MADD, along with leading health and safety experts, agree that the 21 minimum legal drinking age save lives – nearly 25,000 since the law went into effect in 1984.

MADD acknowledges that underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses is a serious problem, but lowering the drinking age is not the answer. Solutions to the problem can include:

• Changing the drinking culture on college campuses and within communities
• Enforcement of the 21 drinking age law-Upholding responsible alcohol policies
• Holding those over 21 accountable for providing alcohol to minors
• Working with high school and middle school parents and leaders to reach their youth well before college on the drinking age so this problem is corrected early versus once students are in college

Learn more about underage drinking.

The 21 Law Saves Lives: University Presidents Misguided in Signing Amethyst Initiative to Discuss Lowering the Drinking Age

An estimated 25,000 lives have been saved by the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age, which is why it is so troubling that more than 100 college and university presidents have signed on to a misguided initiative that uses deliberately misleading information to confuse the public on the effectiveness of the 21 law.

MADD, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the American Medical Association (AMA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Governors Highway Safety Association and other science, medical and public health organizations call on these college and university presidents to remove their names from this list and urge them to work with the public health community and law enforcement on real solutions to underage and binge drinking. Additionally, MADD asks the public to write letters to the college presidents on this list asking them to remove their names and to support the 21 minimum legal drinking age.

University of Florida Revises Alcohol Policy; Prohibits Kegs, Drinking Games

"Just more than a week after the Princeton Review cited the University of Florida as the best place to party, the university revised its alcohol policy, specifically prohibiting some popular college-drinking activities." Read the complete article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Irresponsible drinking on college campuses has reached epidemic proportions. To make a real difference, students, faculty, parents, law enforcement and community members must all work together. MADD has resources for each as part of its College Initiatives.

University of Evansville President Charged with Drunk Driving

The University of Evansville's president entered a rehabilitation program a day after police charged him with driving while intoxicated.

Read the complete story from the Chicago Tribune.