Stepping Up's Guiding Principles
- We believe that all people have the right to a personal, family, community and working life protected from the accidents, violence and other negative consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.
- We believe in personal and collective responsibility.
- There is no magic bullet or overnight solution. We must be willing to try a variety of promising approaches.
The Stepping Up Project supports the right of adults to consume alcoholic beverages legally. But we don't believe it's fair for excessive drinkers to infringe on the rights of other people.
- Excessive drinking is a public health problem because people who drink too much hurt other people.
- Reducing the harms excessive drinkers cause for others is also a collective responsibility
- Those who are affected by the problem have the right to take action to reduce the harms that excessive drinkers and their suppliers cause for other people.
- We need to try several integrated approaches that show promise for reducing the problem
- Among the most important approaches is providing late night, social activities that do not focus on alcohol
- Just as important, we need to look at policies that have proven to be effective in reducing the negative consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.
One of those is the minimum legal drinking age of 21. Since the 1970s, at least 40 studies have examined the effects of a minimum legal drinking age of 21. Those studies consistently show that the 21 drinking age is effective in preventing alcohol-related deaths and injuries among youth.
A common argument among opponents of a minimum legal drinking age of 21 is that because many minors still drink and purchase alcohol, it doesn't work. The evidence shows, however, that although youth still consume alcohol, they drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related injuries and death. Research shows that when the minimum legal drinking age is 21, people under the age of 21 drink less overall and continue to do so through their early twenties.
The problem with the negative consequences of excessive drinkers has been a long time in the making. It took decades to change the culture about smoking in public places. Likewise, it will take time to reduce the harms that excessive drinkers and their suppliers cause for other people. We have to be aggressive enough to try promising solutions now, yet patient enough to give those solutions time to work.