Thank you for responding to my challenge to come up with creative and positive suggestions for dealing with chronic alcohol-related problems in our community. Your staff opinion (""Answering the challenge,"" April 25) did just that. The measures you support (better staffing and training in local establishments and more activities other than just drinking) are all included in the so-called ""Luther's Conditions"" we have been urging local establishments to adopt. Contrary to the impression you might get from the general coverage of this issue, we have actually had excellent cooperation from and excellent experience with many local establishments. Like most students, most vendors recognize that we do have a community problem here, and they want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
In all our discussions and debates, it is critical to remain focused on the real problem: high-risk drinking and all the negative consequences that flow from extreme drunkenness. High-risk drinking is the target'not drinking, per se, and not underage drinking, but high-risk drinking at any age. Letters to the editor, guest editorials and comments from the Tavern League suggesting we should focus on enforcement of the 21 drinking age, lowering the drinking age, eliminating beer sales in the unions, etc., are missing this essential point.
I know The Daily Cardinal continues to oppose restrictions on drink specials. I favor such limitations for several reasons.
First, research and common sense both show that high-risk drinking is always associated with high volumes of alcohol available at cheap prices. The research shows that each 10 percent increase in the cost of alcohol reduces consumption by about 4 percent. Alcohol is cheaper today, in real terms, than it was before most of you were born, in part because the excise taxes on alcohol haven't increased since 1969 for beer and 1981 for essentially everything else, and partly because of the prevalence of specials.
Second, the blitz of screaming ads for drink specials helps create the environment in which high-volume drinking is viewed as the norm or the expectation. Daily Cardinals from the late '60s show few or no ads for ""drink specials,"" and most of the ads were for beer, which was apparently priced at about $1 per pitcher. (Interestingly, many establishments did advertise live entertainment and food specials!)
Third, I think the nature of many of the specials is simply irresponsible. Most of the students transported to detox have gotten themselves into that situation by ""surprise,"" not realizing how much alcohol they were consuming, and not feeling the effects until it was too late to avoid seriously dangerous blood alcohol levels.
In any event, I do appreciate your constructive suggestions, even while we respectfully disagree on some measures. There is no one measure that will ""solve"" the high-risk drinking problem once and for all, but that's no excuse for complacency. Thank you for helping to keep this a topic of discussion.
