College presidents call for lowering drinking age

Is it time to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18?

That's what 100 college and university presidents are calling for, saying current laws actually encourage binge-drinking on campus.

Asked what they think of the Amethyst Initiative, Capital Region residents offered varying opinions.

Butch Hoffman, a single parent, believes children are "irresponsible" at 18, and is firmly against the idea of lowering the drinking age.

But doctoral candidate Nico Suarez disagrees, saying "teens are responsible for their adulthood at 18."

No Capital Region college is on the list of those calling for lowering the drinking age. 

Bennington College's president has joined the group calling for the age to be lowered, but Elizabeth Coleman was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

An examination of Albany and Schenectady counties' statistics, though, shows an alarming new trend that reflect binge-drinking behavior among young adults: young people 18 to 24 years old who are arrested have an increasingly high blood alcohol count -- somewhere between .16 and .18. 

The legal limit in New York state is .08.

Albany County's Stop DWI program coordinator Sgt. Leonard Crouch said there is a distressing number of young women who are binge drinking these days.

"Girls have increased in Albany County by 24 percent, " Crouch says, "That's a huge number."

Crouch blames the popular culture for glamorizing partying -- including TV shows like "Sex and the City."

Drinking and driving isn't the only worry, Crouch says. It's young women being assaulted, including sexually, when they're drunk.  He feels the legal drinking age at 21 has saved lives.

"Some of these college presidents don't want to face facts that some of their campuses are out of control, " says Crouch.