The national chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving issued a list of five recommendations to prevent underage drinking. In conjunction with the Boston University student chapter (the only MADD campus affiliate in the country), the organization released this plan just in time for Spring Break at colleges and universities around the country.
MADD’s plan encourages colleges to adopt a national standard to govern their alcohol policies based on the recommendations of researchers and practitioners. The creation and enforcement of such a broad standard would be unrealistic. Because each college campus has different social climates, each school has different needs; a universal college alcohol policy would undermine the differences at every campus.
MADD also wants to create an “Honor Roll of Colleges,” an assessment of colleges based on their alcohol policies and prevention efforts. Ranking schools based on the strictness of their alcohol policies is not useful in determining whether a school has issues with drinking among underage students. Just because one school may have a less strict policy compared to another one does not necessarily mean that the school has a problem with underage drinking. The areas surrounding the campus and the average age of the student population have a greater affect on whether a school may have a problem with underage drinkers.
Furthermore, the actions of individual students, not the severity of campus policy, determine if a school has an underage drinking problem. Each student decides whether or not engage in irresponsible drinking.
More students abstain from alcohol or drink occasionally than abuse alcohol, and these students offset the number of underage drinkers at each campus.
MADD also suggests that students, college officials, community groups and law enforcement should join forces in supporting the underage drinking policies. Involving each of these group would help to ensure that all concerns and needs are addressed. While this recommendation is worthwhile, it has been suggested in the past and has had little success. Twenty years after MADD’s founding, BU is the only college with a student chapter.
MADD advocates an absolute stance to “prevent underage drinking.” This approach is unrealistic.
Underage students who want to drink will do so despite laws making it illegal. No matter what methods MADD uses, these students will not respond to this extremist approach. MADD officials should consider that these students are the most important ones to reach because they would be the most likely to binge drink and drive drunk. In isolating these students, MADD is in effect abandoning them to make irresponsible drinking decisions.
However, the Boston University chapter, Mad About Destructive Drinking, has taken a markedly different position, instead advocating educating all drinkers, regardless of age, about responsible drinking behaviors. The group seeks to equip underage drinkers with the knowledge of how to drink in moderation and without risking personal safety.
According to the national chapter, MADD has helped to pass more than 2,300 laws against drunk driving and underage drinking. It has also succeeded in transforming the attitudes toward drinking and driving. In fact, at yesterday’s event, National MADD President Millie Webb said, “Twenty years ago, drunk driving was considered socially acceptable.” Now, drunk driving is considered taboo. Its popular national “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” campaign has helped to reduce the number of drunk driving incidents along with increasingly strict state laws prohibiting drunk driving.
While these accomplishments are commendable, the organization needs to understand the real issue — that it cannot prevent underage drinking the way it has successfully prevented countless instances of drunk driving. Promoting safer drinking habits, like the BU chapter has done, will be more effective in the long run in preventing tragic alcohol-related deaths. The leadership of MADD’s national chapter should push for more realistic expectations and proposals.
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