OK, I am going to confess something. Over the years that I've been an activist, I've not paid much attention to the issues surrounding abstinence only education. I knew that abstinence only was bad, but I was preoccupied with other things to really pay much attention and didn't know what to say about it. However, I began to think of something that I have believed in when I was in college, and have had this revelation.

Our culture of "abstinence only" for sex is eerily similar to zero tolerance policies towards underage drinking.

We all know that our drinking age is one of the highest in the world. We also know that the reason why this is is that Mothers Against Drunk Driving pushed through legislation in 1984 that told states to either raise their drinking age or forfeit 10% of highway funds. It has had such an effect that even today, an elected could not even question it without Mothers Against Drunk Driving running an ad with a caricature of said elected official driving a beat-up pick up truck and waving around a 40 running into a kid's sandbox (OK, so it hasn't happened, but I could see it happen in the future).

And of course, there is this tidbit about the Arizona Department Of Public Safety:

"Don't let your friend be dead wrong. Test your friend . . . before it's too late" is the message attached to 30,000 Guardian Angel Personal Alcohol Test strips that the state Department of Public Safety will be distributing over the next two weeks to high school students. The strips include cards explaining the consequences of underage drinking.

Representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Destructive Decisions strongly oppose the use of the strips, saying it undermines their zero-tolerance message: that underage drinking is illegal.

"You are saying it is illegal to drink, yet you are giving them a strip to test for alcohol. I don't think it is appropriate," said MADD state Chairwoman Jan Blaser-Upchurch of Tucson, calling the strips "a bad message.

....are paying the price for hosting Ryan's 16th birthday party -- more than two years in jail each. Ryan had asked his mother to buy his friends some beer and wine, as long as they all spent the night.

"No one left the party," said Kelly, 42, who collected car keys that night almost five years ago to prevent anyone from leaving. "No one was hurt. No one drove anywhere. I really don't think I deserve to go to jail for this long."

But Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney James L. Camblos III, who prosecuted the parents, said it was the worst case of underage drinking he has had to deal with in 15 years. "Not only were they serving alcohol to 15- and 16-year-olds, they misled parents who called to ask about alcohol, and they tried to get the kids to cover it up after police got there," Camblos said.

Further in the article...
 

Camblos, who has made curbing underage drinking part of this year's reelection campaign, denied any political motivation. "Politics had nothing to do with it. I've seen too many photographs of teenagers being killed in car wrecks because of drinking and driving."

NEWSFLASH Camblos!!! THE MOM TOOK THE KEYS AWAY!!! But of course, prosecutors tend to avoid the pertinent facts in the case as long as it serves their agenda and gets them re-elected.

But perhaps it boils down to that, like abstinence only, the 21 drinking age does more harm than good, and it is better that children learn about alcohol and sex from trusted adults at an early age, rather than make mistakes without the proper information.

I personally believe that abstinence only, whether it be about alcohol or sex, needs to be relegated to the dustbin of the past. I believe in comprehensive and appropriate sex education and condom distribution in schools, and I also believe that the purchasing age should be lowered to 18 (with consumption under certain conditions allowed at 13).

So, what do you think? Do you think that there is an abstinence only culture towards alcohol? Do you think that there is intersectionality between these two issues? Discuss!