Laurie Leiber, director of the Center on Alcohol Advertising, is
opposed to lowering the drinking age as a way to deal with
underage drinking and is totally deaf to Peter Coors' proposal to
teach kids to drink responsibly ("Lower drinking age wrong way to
deal with underage alcohol consumption," Letters, Oct. 17).

Coors, CEO of Coors Brewing, says it's time to look for new
approaches to a seemingly intractable problem by teaching kids
how to drink responsibly.

Primarily striking out at Coors' TV ads, Leiber insinuates that
the ads promote do mestic violence and seduce adolescents by
irresponsible advertising. It's all in the eyes of the beholder.

For example, Leiber supports ironclad efforts to curb
availability, raise alcohol taxes and limit advertising to
prevent underage drinking. And, best of all, she says: "I will
also continue to ask young people to observe the law and wait
until they are 21 to drink."

In the best of all possible worlds, young people would follow the
rules and wait un-til 21 to take a drink. They would wait until
16 to drive and would practice abstinence for safe sex. But this
is not Eden.

Young people, for better or worse, feel omnipotent and need to
test the world when they break away from their dependent parental
relationship. Doesn't Leiber realize how easy it is for young
people to run rings around rules?

For example, there are no advertisements for marijuana, and yet
young people use it. Telling young people to observe the law is
no winner. Teaching young peo ple how to behave responsibly is
realistic.

Please, don't give alcohol a specialness it doesn't deserve.
Since young people already experiment with alcohol, lowering the
drinking age and teaching them how to use it responsibly is the
only way to go.

Morris E. Chafetz, President
Health Education Foundation
Washington, D.C.