MAD With One "D"

I've just started to be calm enough to post this blog entry. For the last two weeks I've been mad with one "d"...because it happened again.

Roy McConnell and his 3 sons were killed two weeks ago by a suspected underage, drunk driver who blew through a red light in St. Petersburg, FL and violently crashed into Roy's car. All of his kids were with him in the car. All of their wives/girlfriends were waiting at the beach house for them to return. They never came home.

I knew Roy from church. He was a fine drummer, triathlete and family man. He told me more than once that he admired my passion for stopping drunk driving. He was a friend of MADD on Facebook. He believed in the good in people and was a strong man of faith.

This crash was 100% preventable just as every other drunk driving crash is! Someone made a choice to drive after drinking and he is now accused of killing my friend and his 3 sons...devastating a family and a community.

If we do nothing, if we say nothing, then we change nothing. Please help us end this violent crime.

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 Drinking Age Has Saved Lives and Should Remain

An opinion piece by MADD National President Laura Dean-Mooney in U.S. News & World Report, “A Lower Age Would Be Unsafe,” explains the reasons behind and the successes of the 21 minimum legal drinking age.

“Mothers Against Drunk Driving is open to a discussion about solving the problems of underage and binge drinking. But the discussion must be based on facts, and, in this case, the facts are clear: 21 saves lives.”

MADD is opposed to the misguided call to lower the drinking age by college presidents who have signed on to the Amethyst Initiative. Leaders in the public health, science and medical communities support this position. Find out more about MADD’s response to calls to lower the drinking age.

Response to the Amethyst Initiative: Congressional, Public Health and Safety Leaders Support the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age

The 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law has saved an estimated 1,000 lives per year over the last 24 years on and off the roadways and has helped reduce binge drinking (NHTSA, 2008; Smith, Branas and Miller, 1999). That is why MADD is gravely disappointed in the decision of more than 120 college and university presidents who have chosen to sign on to the Amethyst Initiative. It is apparent that the goal of this initiative, guided by Choose Responsibility, is to put pressure on elected officials to lower the minimum drinking age of 21.

Underage drinking, particularly in the university setting, is a serious problem that requires serious reflection. But we should examine this problem without jeopardizing a law that has saved nearly 25,000 lives since going into effect.

We are not alone in our concern our our support of the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age:

"As a three-time university president, I can tell you that losing a student to an alcohol-related tragedy is one of the hardest and most heart-rending experiences imaginable. Signing this initiative does serious harm to the education and enforcement efforts on our campuses and ultimately endangers young lives even more. I ask every higher education leader who has signed to reconsider. I am old enough to remember life on our campuses before the 21 year drinking rule. It was horrible." – University of Miami President and former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala

"Drunk driving needlessly kills thousands of young people every year. That’s why I wrote a law to create a national drinking age of 21 and why we fight so hard to reduce drunk driving and save lives on our roads. This small minority of college administrators wants to undo years of success – that defies common sense. We need to do all we can to protect the national drinking age – a law that saves the lives of drivers, passengers and pedestrians across the country each year.” Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ)

"The traffic safety and public health benefits of the 21 minimum drinking age law have been well established, with the Department of Transportation estimating nearly 1,000 lives saved each year as a result. I strongly support this lifesaving law, and will not consider any effort to repeal or weaken it in any way.” – Congressman James L. Oberstar (D-MN), Chairman, U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

“Countless lives have been saved since Congress raised the national minimum drinking age to 21 in 1984. We need to maintain this important law and the life-saving protection it gives our teens and others on the roads.” – U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA), a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works

"It is impossible to ignore the scientific evidence demonstrating the dangers of underage drinking. A young adult’s brain is a work in progress, marked by significant development in areas of the brain responsible for learning, memory, complex thinking, planning, inhibition and emotional regulation. If we lower the age at which young adults are legally allowed to purchase alcohol, we are lowering the age of those who have easy access to alcohol and shifting responsibility to high school educators. The science simply does not support lowering the drinking age.” – Ronald M. Davis, Immediate Past President of the American Medical Association

Nationwide Insurance Survey Finds that Americans Overwhelmingly Reject an Ongoing Push to Lower the Legal Drinking Age from 21 to 18

A Nationwide Insurance survey released this week finds parents are fed up with “party schools” and politicians who support lowering drinking age.

According to the Nationwide Insurance survey:

• 78 percent of adults support 21 as the minimum drinking age
• 72 percent of adults think lowering the drinking age will make alcohol more accessible to kids
• Only 14 percent of Americans believe a lower drinking age will curb teen binge drinking
• Nearly half believe lowering the drinking age would increase binge drinking among teens
• More than half of the adults surveyed say would not send their children to colleges or universities with “party school” reputations
• More than half say they are unlikely to vote for a state representative who supports lowering the legal limit.

For two decades the legal drinking age in the U.S. has been 21. But during the last 18 months, nine states have entertained the idea of lowering the drinking age minimum and three states have live legislation. And 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 21 law. The public strongly disagrees with efforts to lower the drinking age.

Make your voice heard! Sign MADD's pledge to stand strongly united in support of the 21 minimum drinking age.

London Suburb Proposes Voluntary Ban to Stop Selling Alcohol to Those Under 21

Young adults under 21 in the London Borough of Croydon could be banned from buying alcohol in shops in an attempt to reduce binge drinking and underage drinking. Read the complete story in the Daily Mail.

Learn more about the lifesaving 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age in the United States at Why21.org.

21 Drinking Age Saves Nearly 1,000 Lives a Year – and Turns Another Year Older

An estimated 25,000 people are alive today because of the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA). Since its passage 24 years ago today, there have been significant declines in deaths on the roads and off the roads. In 2006, an estimated 890 lives were saved by minimum drinking age laws.

Learn more about the 21 MLDA on MADD.org and sign our pledge in support of the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age.