Has higher drinking age created its own problems?

Like a father with second thoughts about how he raised his children, Morris Chafetz has reconsidered one of his most prominent - and controversial - recommendations on youthful behavior.

Twenty-seven years ago, Chafetz, a psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, recommended to President Ronald Reagan that the minimum drinking age be raised to 21 nationwide.

“It is the single-most regrettable decision of my entire professional career,” Chafetz wrote in an essay this month. “Legal Age 21 has not worked.”

While many on the front lines of the legal-drinking-age battle agree with that assessment, not all of them agree with his remedy.

“The reality is that at age 18 in this country, one is a legal adult,” he wrote, now urging that the drinking age become 18 - the age at which one can vote, sign contracts, be summoned to jury duty and serve in the military.

Leah Cohen would drink to that.

The owner of Bo James, an Iowa City bar and restaurant since 1983, agrees with critics who say the national drinking-age law, which came with the threat of a 10 percent reduction in federal transportation funds if states didn't comply, has created more problems than it has prevented.

Cohen believes it has led to a “lack of responsible drinking” by young adults “who go out to get drunk, not to have a few drinks” and has contributed to the plague of binge drinking associated with university communities.

Cohen calls it “ridiculous” that an 18-year-old “can go to war, get shot up, get killed, but can't have a beer.”

Sam Hargadine was in the military when he was 18 and doesn't have a problem with servicemen and women drinking on military bases.

“That ought to be a privilege of serving your country,” the Iowa City police chief said.

Holding the middle ground is James Phifer, president of Coe College in Cedar Rapids and a signatory of the Amethyst Initiative, a public statement by college presidents calling for “an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age.”

He and his co-signers have been misunderstood, Phifer said, by those opposed to lowering the drinking age. They didn't call for lowering the drinking age, but for a “thorough review about what's working and what isn't,” he said.

“It's clear, 21 is laden with problems,” said Phifer, the only Iowa college president to sign the statement in 2007. “It appears to have led to heightened bad behavior rather than impose better behavior. At the same time, I can't emphasize enough I don't favor lowering it to 18.”

Karla Miller doesn't take a position on an appropriate drinking age, but the executive director of the University of Iowa Rape Victim Advocacy Program said alcohol is the “No. 1 date rape drug” used to overpower or take advantage of victims. According to the program's records, alcohol was the “weapon” in a quarter to more than one-third of the rapes reported in each of the past five years.

That's part of the “collateral damage” stemming from binge drinking, what Chafetz calls “reckless, goal-oriented drinking to get drunk.” It contributes to 600,000 assaults reported annually, plus date rapes, property damage and emergency-room calls, Chafetz said.

Still, Miller doesn't accept Chafetz's suggested solution.

“It would be erroneous to say (lowering the drinking age) would solve the (rape) problem,” said Miller, adding that predators go wherever they can find victims.

Instead of lowering the age, offer more alcohol-free activities, say Hargadine and Cohen, who serve on panels at the UI to reduce binge drinking.

Hargadine said he understands age doesn't determine when someone is mature enough to drink responsibly. “At some point you have to draw a line in the sand. Right now, it's 21,” he said.

If Iowa lawmakers who responded to a Gazette survey are representative, that's not likely to change. Most “strongly favor” keeping the 21-year-old drinking age.

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, would be willing to look at a change if Iowa's federal transportation funds were not jeopardized. Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton, would be willing to let members of the military younger than 21 drink, but acknowledged enforcement would be difficult.