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thursday, january 18, 1979
lincoln, nebraska vol. 102 no. 63
year's drinking age bottleneck uncorked again
By Randy Essex
Grand Island Sen. Ralph Kelly, sponsor of a bill to
raise Nebraska's drinking age from 19 to 21, said Wed
nesday the bill was not considered by the full Legislature
last year because of influence exerted by the state's liquor
industry.
"It hasn't made it to the floor (the last two years it was
introduced) because the liquor industry has kept it
bottled up in their Miscellaneous Subjects Committee,"
Kelly said.
Kelly would not elaborate, but said the members of the
committee could try to prove his statement was not true.
Donald Dworak of Columbus, last year's Miscellaneous
Subjects Committee chairman, said the liquor industry
"did influence some members of the committee, but not
five (a majority)."
Not convinced
Omaha Sen. William Brennan, a committee member,
said he was not influenced by industry spokesmen, as did
Dworak. Brennan said he did not hear anything in the
committee hearings that made him want to change the
present age.
"If somebody doesn't get their way in committee they
might say someone controls the committee," Brennan
said.
Dworak said his vote against the bill was based on his
belief that the Legislature cannot deny 19- and 20-year-olds
the privilege of drinking.
"They (supporters of the move) say 16- and 17-year-olds
get liquor they drink from 19- and 20-year-olds, and
they say this without real evidence," Dworak said.
But the Columbus senator said he could support the
bill if an amendment were attached making it legal for 19
and 20-year-olds to drink on the premises of a licensed
establishment, and illegal to buy liquor on off-sale.
Dworak said he would introduce the amendment this
year as he did last year.
Minor violations
Kelly offered evidence that 19- and 20-year-olds are
buying liquor for minors.
He said there is a closer relationship between a 19-year-old
and a high school student. He offered figures showing
that since 1972, when the age was lowered to 19, annual
consumption of liquor in Nebraska has gone up from 32
gallons per person to 139 gallons per person.
"They (19 and 20-year-olds) can't drink 1,438 bottles
of beer. They had to have some help," Kelly said. That
help had to come from minors, he said.
Kelly criticized the Daily Nebraskan for its past
coverage of the measure.
"It is my opinion that the Daily Nebraskan has not
covered the issue fairly," Kelly said. He asked that the
matter be discussed with Daily Nebraskan editors.
Young affected
Kelly said when young people from 17 to 20 look at
his proposal they feel like somebody is stealing their
cherry pop, because those people are most affected by the
proposal.
Kelly cited a survey conducted last year by the Omaha
World-Herald indicating 69 percent of those interviewed
favor raising the age to 21. The survey also showed that
53 percent of those under 30 favored his proposal last
year.
He showed figures from the Nebraska Commission on
Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice that show a steady
rise in the number of 1 7-year-olds arrested for liquor vio
lations and for driving while intoxicated.
Figures from the Nebraska Department of Roads show
an increase in alcohol related traffic deaths between 1973
and 1976 for 19- and 20-year-olds.
Kelly said the deaths are bad enough, but those figures
do not reflect the number of young people injured
in alcohol-related accidents.
Valuable resource
"Our young people are too valuable a resource to waste
so the liquor industry can make an extra $25 million a
year," Kelly said.
Kelly said the $25 million figure is only an estimate.
"Is it any wonder there is a bar on every street corner
in downtown Lincoln?" Kelly asked.
He said the lower drinking age has made it more diffi
cult to enforce the university drinking policy.
Before the age was lowered to 19, most university stu
dents were not of legal age, Kelly explained. Now minors
are the exception rather than the rule on the UNL
campuses.
He said the sheer number of students old enough to
drink prevents law enforcement officials from doing
their job.
Kelly added that his bill raises only the drinking age,
and not the voting age or age of majority.
"Young people get this confused sometimes," he said.
Support promised
Dworak said the proposal would have more support
this year than it has had in the past. He said the Nebraska
Secondary Education Association will support the bill,
and some other states have raised their drinking ages,
giving the bill some momentum.
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.Photo by Bob Pearson
State senator Ralph Kelly of Grand Island.
Kelly said the trend to lower drinking ages across the
country has ended, and states are beginning to go the
other way.
Michigan, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Iowa have
raised their ages. Oklahoma was forced by the U.S. Su
preme Court to make the drinking age there the same for
men and women. Women in Oklahoma were allowed to
drink at 18, but men could not drink legally until age 21.
Kelly pointed out that Oklahoma raised its age for
women rather than lowering the age for men.
Indiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon
and Pennsylvania senators defeated moves to lower their
states' drinking ages.
"The experiment (to lower ages) has been a dismal
failure," Kelly said.
Doctor studies deadly rattlers' to benefit living, despite protests
By Jeff Kruse
It's a pretty efficient way of dealing
with rattlesnakes. Study their muscles and
brains, sell their skins, eat their meat, put
their venom in the freezer, and, oh, yes, try
not to get bit.
'They're fascinating, exotic, and threat
ening creatures," said Dr. Robert Shuman,
who for the past eight months supervised
a study of 43 rattlesnakes at the University
of Nebraska Medical Center.
Shuman, chief of neuropathology at the
medical center, said there are several rea
sons for studying the snakes.
"We may find information regarding
evolutionary processes, muscle behavior,
and brain activity," he said. "These results
would be directly applicable to human
beings."
The idea of studying rattlesnakes was
suggested to Shuman by Bill Strond, a
UNO zoology graduate student. Strond,
who obtained the snakes by participating
in a "rattlesnake roundup" in Oklahoma, is
interested in studying control centers of
the snake's brain which regulate aggression.
'Rattler' strikes
Last May, he learned about their agres
sion the hard way when Gazelda, a four
foot rattler, bit him on the chest.
"Bill's reaction was amazing." said Steve
Baxter, who works in the lab with Strong.
"He kept a hold of the snake, calmly put it
back in the pen, then walked down to the
emergency room.
Strond's stoicism also amazed Dr.
Shuman.
"If that had happened to me I would
have thrown the snake down and stomped
on it until it was dead. Bill just gently put
it back. I don't think he petted it, but I
wouldn't put it past him," Shuman said.
Strono spent a day in intensive care and
a week at home recovering from the bite.
"It was a touchy situation since no one
had treated a snakebite here before and it
was something totally new for the doctors
and residents," Strond said. "But I didn't
have the nausea or vomiting associated
with more serious bites, just alot of pain
and reaction to the horse serum."
Studies dead tissue
Strond now is studying his own dead
tissue that had to be removed because of
the bite.
Shuman said that after the incident, a
lot of pressure was put on him to get rid
of the snakes.
"What you have to understand is that it
was an accident based on basic anatomy,"
he said, explaining that they are taking no
unnecessary risks.
"It's
because
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important to study the snakes
reptiles are a branch point for
much of physiology," he said. "We are test
ing the possibility that anatomy determines
behavior; that is, that anatomy would be
at least a necessary, if not a sufficient con
dition for determining behavior."
Shuman said a snake's brain is
composed of the same material that in
human brains accounts for affections,
sexual behavior, attention and memory.
Muscular dystrophy clues
Shuman and Strond are also studying
the muscle activities of the rattlesnakes,
where they hope to find some clues to
human muscular dystrophy.
Continued on Page 1 1
thursday
Photo by Bob Pearson
Dr. Robert Shuman, director of a UNO research team studying the muscle and ner
vous system of diamond back rattlesnakes.
Fear of Flying: Columnist has the airport
terminal blues page 4.
Bedtime is Bad time: Movie Moment by
Moment more like hour by
hour page 8.
Huskers start new season: Wednesday's
win over Kansas State is a turning point
for Joe Cipriano and team .... page 10.