Our View - Sunday

Black market binge
   It's time to lower the drinking age

   Where does a "60 Minutes" crew go to learn about binge drinking by young adults? The University of Colorado-Boulder, of course, where young drunkards - and those who would save them - are easy to find. Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner - who will be featured in an as-yet-unscheduled "60 Minutes" segment - explained that the problem rests in federal regulation that must change. In a memo to the Boulder City Council, Beckner warned of his controversial stand.

   "I believe we should consider returning the legal drinking age to 18, and then spend our resources on programs to reduce abuse of alcohol and the effects it has on behavior," Beckner wrote.

   The drinking age varied from state-to-state, ranging from 18 to 21, until President Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The law withheld highway funds from states that failed to set the legal age at 21. All 50 states quickly complied. Young adults did not, continuing to drink despite the law.

   With each tragic alcohol event, Colorado politicians, CU officials and an array of concerned activists stepped up efforts to further regulate the unlawful drinking activities of adults under 21. There have been town hall meetings; more beat cops; scrutiny of fraternities and sororities; liquor store stings and cops in the doorways of bars.

   Each effort to further regulate drinking, Beckner believes, has led to more bingeing. The underground activity has led to student deaths and raucous riots in the streets.

   "What we have been doing for the last 25 years has not worked," Beckner told the Boulder Daily Camera, explaining why he spoke to "60 Minutes."

   Of course it hasn't worked. Prohibition has never worked. It didn't work with alcohol early in the 20th century, it hasn't worked with drugs, it has never worked with guns, and it doesn't work with candy. That's right: Candy.

   In a new trend, school districts throughout the country have worked to forcefully banish junk food. They've replaced soda with bottled water and candy with yogurt and nuts. In doing so, they've created a black market of candy sales that takes place in parking lots, locker rooms, hallways and playgrounds. Entrepreneurial students buy loads of cheap candy and snacks at Sam's Club and Costco, mark up the price tenfold or more, and sell it for enormous profit. Vending machines that sell health food go largely ignored. Meanwhile, bands, drama clubs and other organizations that were funded by the above-board junk food sales are struggling financially while the black market thrives. Few win, many lose.

   Back on the college campuses, it's an enormous social problem when young adults drink to excess - often bingeing themselves right out of their educations and careers. It's worse when one of them dies from alcohol poisoning. It's even worse when one crashes a car and kills. One cannot rationally defend binge drinking on the part of young adults, or adults of any age. The lives of Ozzy Osbourn, Hunter Thompson, Jim Morrison and other glamorized drunkards are truly ugly and tragic cautionary tales. It's easy to understand why people seek to outlaw the behavior among adults who are just starting out.

   But humans are free at age 18. They are no longer children under adult control. They themselves are adults. At age 18, one can leave home without permission, get married, have kids and lead an independent life. A person with that much freedom and autonomy won't be told by the state what to drink - not when it's a free-for-all for other adults. It just plain doesn't work. Efforts to control the common behaviors of a select group of adults - through the blunt force of law - only push the behaviors underground. In the case of alcohol, the targeted class obtains alcohol illegally, and then consumes it in private. Underground with booze, they're free from the checks and balances and social pressures that keep other adults in check when they drink in restaurants and bars, enjoying community acceptance.

   Adults can't be forced to stay dry, but they can be persuaded. That's where Beckner hit the nail on the head, telling "60 Minutes" we need to focus on education.

   Senseless regulations breed black markets. Once conceived, they thrive in dark confines that foster danger and excess. Would deregulation prevent all riots, end drunken driving and save society from alcohol abuse? Not a chance. It would, however, end the dark and widespread phenomenon of underground bingeing.

   Feds work to torpedo health coverage

   Out on the campaign trail, most of the presidential candidates have been going on at length about how important it is that affordable health insurance be made available to every American. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives recently took a significant step toward making that goal unobtainable.

   By a 268-148 margin, the House passed what is called the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act," named in honor of the late Minnesota senator. It would require insurance companies to provide equal coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both. Proponents claim it would help to end the stigma of mental illness and "create greater access for people needing mental health and addiction treatment," as the Associated Press put it.

   What it would do in real life would be to drive up the cost of health insurance - or create an incentive for insurance companies not to cover mental health services at all.

   The only way to make health insurance available to everybody is to have choices - Kia-level plans as well as Mercedes Benzes and Rolls Royces. With bills like this, Congress is working to make sure that doesn't happen.