Safety or Fairness?

In the 1970s, downtown bar districts saw a slightly younger crowd...until the national drinking age changed from 18 in 1981 to 21 in 1987. Now some are wondering if it’s time to change the law back.

It’s not unusual for South Dakota State University Police Department Officer Mike Burgard to come across underage drinking on Friday night patrols .

"For most of the incidents we come across, most of [the students] have consumed alcohol and a lot of times a fairly substantial amount of alcohol," Burgard said, "I just don't feel the maturity level in there in individuals under the age of 21."

There’s a push by a coalition of U.S. university presidents working to lower the drinking age to 18, making it legal for first and second year students at university to drink. Burgard’s chief says a lower drinking age would actually create more work for them.

"Would arrests go down? Probably not," Chief Tim Heaton said. "We'd probably just have a lot more violent crimes."

Chief Heaton believes lowering the drinking age would create safety issues on campus sidewalks. But inside the walls of an SDSU residence hall, 18-year-old Michael Holt sees things a little differently.

"I'd rather have drinking in a somewhat contained environment, then going to parties or keggers or anywhere else where there's a bunch of people," Holt said.

But Flandreau, S.D. Lawyer Bob Pesall, who is lobbying the legislature to lower the drinking age, believes safety is not the issue.

"I think fairness is more important than safety. In South Dakota, we give responsibilties to people at a younger age." Pesall thinks the age limit on alcohol should reflect that.

South Dakota lawmakers may have to decide which is more important: safety for their students, or fairness of the law.