Last but not least...

I'd like to cap off the weekend and finally make my debut on Keepin' It Platinum. Unlike Licoln and Raph, I currently bear no official title--add that to the list of not platinum things.

You may have heard in the news recently that the debate over lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 has once again been stirred up. And this time, it's not the usual collegiate opinion writers with no new material on the subject. Instead, more than 100 university and college leaders have signed the Amethyst Initiative petition to lawmakers to reconsider the legal drinking age--and it's about time. Not even a petition of 10,000 college students would carry as much weight or gain as much media attention as the current list of petitioners.

College-age young adults who drink realize two things: 1) the law is still relatively new because their parents had the right to drink beer at 18, and 2) 18 year olds (and younger) in nearly all other countries can to do so legally. Will the real "land of the free" please stand up? Kudos to college leaders who voiced their concern: they realized that government isn't better at preventing adults from making potentially stupid or irresponsible choices, like binge drinking. Now there's just millions of responsible and irresponsible "criminals" attending colleges and universities nationwide.

I propose that the states take the initiative to decentralize government control by lowering their drinking ages--no more federal funding for highways. Even if you increase state-level sin tax on alcohol by small percent (just think of Nevada!), states could potentially recover the portion lost from federal funds. Also, the cost to enforce MIPs would fall, and that money could be reallocated to a more useful purpose: enforcing DUI offenses. If that fails and the highways deteriorate, at least kids won't be out on the highways driving drunk. In the meantime, MADD should be thankful for the recent surge in gas prices.