By Matt Fredmonsky
Record-Courier staff writer
Kent City Council again will send letters to state legislators asking for a statewide change in policy.
Only this time, the change is being sought on a national level as well.
The request is simple: Lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18.
Councilman Ed Bargerstock asked council to direct the city's law director to send the letters urging state and federal leaders to lower the drinking age back to 18.
Council voted to approve Bargerstock's motion this month.
Bargerstock said the higher drinking age has resulted in severe problems in Kent.
"If you can take an 18-year-old, teach him to use a weapon. ... There's no reason why they can't learn to use alcohol properly," he said.
Bargerstock said because new college students and other 18-year-olds cannot drink legally in the city's bars, the legal adults resort to carrying open containers down the sidewalks and serving alcohol to minors at large house parties.
The parties, Bargerstock said, create unlicensed bars and foster an atmosphere where assaults, rapes and other acts of violence can occur.
He said these people should be allowed to consume alcohol in the proper environment -- local bars.
"If they were in a more controlled environment ... you wouldn't have people walking through neighborhoods ... in an unregulated environment," Bargerstock said. "It becomes a free-for-all."
In the past, council has asked its state representatives to consider lobbying for a tax on beer to support the city's safety forces.