Editorial: From Prohibition to Phony IDs

Fake IDs are basically synonymous with the college experience. Hailing from high schools around the country, incoming freshmen are eager to attend their first keg party and drink beer until the word “sober” becomes a distant concept in their minds.

But it’s not just freshmen who thrive on intoxicated Fridays nights and Saturday mornings spent piecing together the previous night. All underage college students are ready to spread their socialite wings and venture into local bars with classmates – and they do so with fake IDs.

Identity document forgery is a crime, punishable by law. At the very least, the person charged with this felony can lose his/her driver’s license for a year and be required to pay a large fine.

However, few students are aware of these consequences; the recent investigation of a Fairfield student allegedly creating fake IDs shows just that.

This practice has become so common, largely because the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, unlike most other countries.

According to the International Center for Alcohol Policies, the United States is joined only by Egypt, Honduras, Samoa and the Solomon Islands with this age restriction.

Forgery should never be condoned by one’s peers, but it is an unfortunate reality when 18-year-olds can fight for their country and elect its president but are barred from consuming alcohol. It is also no wonder that teenagers – beginning in their middle school years – raid dad’s whiskey stash or mom’s wine cabinet the minute their parents leave the house.

Just like the Prohibition years forced individuals to secretly create speakeasies for alcohol consumption, so too will a high legal drinking age encourage the making of fake IDs.

Watching students carry their intoxicated friends – some of whom are completely unable to walk – to the Health Center on a Saturday night is never a pleasing sight. In fact, it is downright worrisome.

These students’ lives are at risk each time they indulge in binge drinking. But one must wonder if weekend hospital visits would be reduced if the drinking age were too.