THE TIPPLING POINT

Jenna's Old Enough To Drink

It's time the law acknowledged that there's nothing wrong with sipping
a margarita.

The disproportionate and often unseemly media attention given to the
president's daughter, Jenna, cited twice for underage drinking, may have at
least one positive effect--forcing the country to rethink its drinking
laws. You need to have a pretty hard heart to believe that a 19-year-old
woman deserves to be reported to the police and punished by a court--not to
mention nationally humiliated and publicly psychoanalyzed--for ordering a
margarita.

It forces you to question whether laws banning drinking for all Americans
under the age of 21 are wise. It has certainly made me wonder, and I am one
American not otherwise prone to a pro-alcohol agenda. I have imbibed hard
liquor maybe five times in my life, I have one glass of wine a week, and I
almost never drink beer.

Moreover I consider alcohol abuse to be a major social problem. It is a
factor in a majority of murders and in countless incidents of child and
spousal abuse. If all alcoholic beverages evaporated from our planet, with
them would go a great deal of crime and unhappiness. In fact, it is an
indication of our society's moral decline that whereas two generations ago
we made war on alcohol, a substance that can lead to much evil, our
generation has decided to wage war against tobacco, which leads no one to
hurt anyone and constitutes only a major health problem.

All this notwithstanding, drinking in and of itself is not a moral problem.
Countless good people drink without the slightest ill effect on themselves
or on others. Indeed, when consumed prudently, wine, alcohol and beer can
add a bit to the sum total of human happiness. So whatever our attitude to
drinking may be, we should first acknowledge that there is nothing wrong
with a 19-year-old enjoying a margarita. When I cited on my radio show a
foolish article that spoke of Jenna's drinking as some pathologic
consequence of her father's drinking, I noted that if this is the worst
thing Jenna Bush ever does, George and Laura Bush will be among the
luckiest parents to have ever lived.

Drinking a margarita is not wrong for either an adult or a 19-year-old, and
society should not make illegal what isn't wrong. Making illegal what is
not immoral--and what nearly everyone does--only breeds contempt for the law.

What, then, is considered wrong about drinking at 19? The same things that
are potentially wrong with drinking after 21--inebriation, alcoholism, a
dulling of the conscience, a loosening of inhibitions, and drunk driving.
But making it illegal to drink before 21 does not prevent these problems.
Essentially, what these laws do is force people under 21 to sneak and
lie--just as Jenna did by offering a false ID.

Moreover, it is morally confused for a society to allow 16- and
17-year-olds to drive a car; 18-year-olds to kill and be killed in the
armed forces; 18-year-olds to disfigure themselves permanently with
tattoos; children of any age, with a guardian's permission, to attend films
that feature the most innocence-robbing raunch and sadism; 18-year-olds who
usually know nothing about life or about public policy to choose our
nation's leaders; and 15-year-olds to have an abortion without a parent's
permission--but not to allow 20-year-olds to have a margarita.

One New York state official called my radio show to tell me that the policy
actually works against society's interest. Many young people, instead of
drinking in public where their consumption might be monitored and
moderated, ask someone to buy them alcohol and then consume it in the very
worst place of all--a car.

Does allowing 18-year-olds to drink therefore mean that we must adopt a
laissez-faire policy toward drinking? Absolutely not. But if we are wise
enough, it will enable us to concentrate on preventing problem drinking and
promoting moderate drinking. This means fighting drunkenness with every
didactic and legal weapon we have.

We can limit the amount of alcohol anyone between 18 and 21 can purchase.
We must strictly enforce DUI laws and severely punish violators, young and
old. And we must pass and enforce laws against public inebriation. "Get
drunk in public and get arrested" will do far more to educate young people
about moderate drinking and make a civilized society than "No margaritas."
We have prosecuted Jenna Bush more for drinking her margaritas than we have
thousands of rioting, drunken college students.

Finally a truly wise society might consider my producer Charlie Richards's
idea: Switch the age of drinking with that of voting. Personally, I'd
sooner trust the majority of 18-year-olds to drink responsibly than to vote
responsibly.

As embarrassed as Jenna Bush may be after having police called in to cite
her for drinking a margarita, the country ought to be even more embarrassed
by such irrational treatment of a decent young woman and by the misuse of
its police resources. If it is, the president and Congress should do
whatever is necessary to allow the individual states to set their own
drinking age. You can call it the Jenna Bush Bill. You can certainly call
it compassionate conservatism.