KC man's effort to lower drinking age meets with little support
Michael Mikkelsen, a 25-year-old Kansas City resident, began a statewide petition last June to lower the legal age for consuming alcoholic beverages in Missouri to 18 years old. To date Mikkelsen has garnered between 5,000 and 10,000 signatures for the petition, short of the 100,000 needed in order to get the petition on a ballot.
Mikkelsen is the organizer and founder of Missouri 18 to Drink, a Missouri organization attempting to lower the legal age for alcohol consumption and purchase. Since the unveiling of Missouri 18 to Drink the organization has enlisted the support of several other groups including; Choose Responsibility, National Youth Rights Association, and the Missouri Libertarian Party.
A number of reasons outline the organization's plan to lower the legal drinking age. According to Mikkelsen the top reason for the movement is the age at which Missouri considers residents a legal adult. He said, "This is a promotion of freedom, 18-year-olds are considered adult and they should be allowed to purchase and consume alcohol. It's about civil liberties."
Mikkelsen also referred to the age at which citizens are eligible to become part of the military and fight overseas. "At 18 a person can fight and die for our country, they can be sent to Iraq to fight in a war. They should be allowed to go to the bar and have a drink if they choose," he said.
Michael Boland spokesman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving rebutted Mikkelsen's reasoning and said there are other activities limited to adults. "We have benchmarks for a reason. We can't go to Vegas and gamble at 18 and for good reason."
"Lowering the drinking age would result in more people drinking and driving. This would just result in more carnage on our roadways, when we are already having problems with those over 21," said Boland.
Mikkelsen said he believes lowering the drinking age will result in less drunk driving and binge drinking. "With a drinking age of 21, young people are introduced to alcohol behind closed doors with bad influences instead of in a more parentally controlled environment," he said. "This results in more binge drinking due to the underground nature of pre-gaming."
Pre-gaming is when people under the age of 21 obtain alcohol and drink heavily before an event that will feature alcohol.
Another large debate involved with this topic is the monetary cost to lower the drinking age. Missouri receives a large amount of federal funding to keep the legal age to purchase and consume alcohol at 21. Missouri Secretary of Sate Robin Carnahan's Web site shows a loss of about $50 million state and local government entities, with only $12.9 million dollars in returned revenue through sales and excise taxes. "I would like to know if they are asking the people before they sign the petition 'Are you also willing to forfeit the millions of dollars we would lose in federal funding?'" said Boland.
Mikkelsen and Ben Casebolt, an administrator with Missouri 18 to Drink, both claimed that the organization attempted to set up a series of on-campus debates with MADD representatives. They said their requests for the debate were denied by MADD officials. Boland said he felt there was no reason to debate the group. "I don't know what there is to debate. Since 1984 when legislation went into effect and raised the drinking age there have been thousands less drivers killed on our roadways. What data says his premise makes sense? They have nothing."
Mikkelsen said he plans to raise the organization's mailing rate and raise greater awareness of the petition through raised awareness of political activity due to the presidential primary campaign.
Casebolt said that this round of petitioning will expire as of May 2008, however the group has already made plans to file for a continued petition and intends to push forward with their movement.