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Trenton
– As college students return to campuses
across the State, the NJ21 Coalition has
announced its support of maintaining the
current drinking age, citing evidence that
drunk driving fatalities among young people
have dramatically decreased in New Jersey
since the minimum age was raised to 21 more
than 25 years ago.
Organized by the Division of Highway Traffic
Safety, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage
Control and the Partnership for a Drug-Free
New Jersey, NJ21 is comprised of State government,
law enforcement and non-profit agencies
opposed to lowering the drinking age. The
coalition was created in response to the
Amethyst Initiative, a recently developed
effort that has received support from college
and university presidents across the nation
who believe the current minimum legal drinking
age should be revised.
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram
echoed the sentiment of the NJ21 Coalition,
and supports maintaining the current drinking
age.
“Since
the drinking age was raised to 21 in New
Jersey in the 1980’s, we have seen
nearly a 78 percent decrease in the number
of young people ages 18 to 20 who have been
killed in drunk driving crashes,”
Attorney General Milgram said. “These
numbers alone tell us without any doubt,
the drinking age must be maintained. It’s
been proven to save young lives, and nothing
is more important.”
In 1980, when the drinking age was changed
to 19, fatalities were at an all-time high
for 18 to 20 year olds, with 88 young people
losing their lives in drunk driving crashes.
In 1983, when the drinking age was raised
to 21, 45 individuals in that same age group
died as a result of a drunk driving-related
crash. Since that time, the numbers of fatalities
related to DWI crashes has steadily decreased.
In 2007, 10 young people were killed in
drunk driving crashes on New Jersey roadways.
That number has remained constant since
2005.
“These
numbers clearly illustrate the positive
impact the current drinking age has had
on improving safety on New Jersey roadways,”
stated Pam Fischer, Director of the Division
of Highway Traffic Safety. “These
numbers tell us that we have made progress
-- significant progress -- and there’s
no need to change what is clearly saving
lives.”
According
to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), the current minimum legal drinking
age has reduced traffic fatalities involving
drivers aged 18 to 20 years old by 13 percent,
saving nearly 900 lives every year. Research
has shown that the enactment of 21 as the
minimum drinking age has been one of the
most effective countermeasures ever put
in place to reduce alcohol-related fatalities,
and that such laws have saved more than
25,000 lives since 1975. All 50 states and
the District of Columbia had enacted 21
as the minimum legal drinking age by 1988.
Division
of Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Jerry
Fischer noted that, “It is too easy
to abdicate responsibility for addressing
this significant problem when one sees it
only in the context of his or her own limited
borders. The college presidents who endorse
lowering the drinking age need to look beyond
the borders of their colleges and see how
a community as a whole would be impacted.
“Lowering
the drinking age to 18 would make alcohol
more readily available to young people,
not just on college campuses, but in the
community at large, undermining efforts
to keep minors from binge drinking, or drinking
and driving, and the myriad other consequences
of underage drinking, that harm not just
our young people but those around them as
well,” he continued. “It is
with these tragic consequences in mind that
the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control
wholeheartedly opposes lowering the legal
drinking age below 21.”
Angelo M. Valente, Executive Director of
the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey
added that, based on the 2005 Annual Review
of the Public Health, more than 1,700 college
students in the United States are killed
each year, or nearly five every day, as
a result of alcohol-related injuries.
“By
lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18,
we are extremely concerned that fatalities
will increase and other alcohol-related
situations, including binge drinking, date
rape, and violent behavior will become more
prevalent on our college campuses,”
Valente said. “Approximately 50 percent
of New Jersey high school seniors reach
the age of 18 before high school graduation.
By lowering the drinking age, we will certainly
see additional serious issues arise, not
only on college campuses, but at high schools
throughout the State.”
"Like
prescription medications, alcohol is already
far too accessible and attainable, which
means there is great potential for abuse
and addiction,” said Raquel Jeffers,
the director of the Division of Addiction
Services in the Department of Human Services.
"Generally speaking, young people are
less likely to resist peer pressure, more
likely to take risks and highly sensitive
to the effects of alcohol. In fact, alcohol
has the potential to impact the maturing
brain and increase by four times susceptibility
to addiction. Any change to the current
drinking age will surely stress our already
overwhelmed health care and substance recovery
systems."
The
NJ21 Coalition also applauds Rowan University
for publicly stating their opposition to
any changes to the minimum legal drinking
age. University President Donald J. Farish
reinforced that opposition in a letter to
John McCardell, one of the founder’s
of the Amethyst Initiative.
The
members of the NJ21 Coalition are: New Jersey
Office of the Attorney General; New Jersey
Division of Highway Traffic Safety; New
Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control;
New Jersey State Police; New Jersey Department
Of Human Services, Division of Addiction
Services; New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission;
Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey;
MADD; New Jersey State Safety Council; New
Jersey Police Traffic Officers’ Association;
Sheriffs’ Association of New Jersey;
New Jersey Prevention Network; Childhood
Drinking (CD) Coalition; New Jersey State
Association of Chiefs of Police; HERO Campaign;
Rowan University; NJPTA; and the Governor’s
Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
The
coalition is committed to reinforcing the
lifesaving impact of the minimum 21 drinking
age through enforcement, education and public
awareness initiatives.
NOTE:
Reporters may contact each of the above
agencies directly for further comment on
this issue.
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