Compare that "newsworthy" item to other under-age drinking stories. Every college term, we hear accounts of students who risk acute alcohol poisoning during rituals like "21 for 21" - when, on their 21st birthdays, they down a shot of liquor for every year of their lives. In dormitory rooms and off-campus apartments, students who feel depressed hole up with bottles of alcohol, start to chug and are lucky if their supposed cure brings nothing more than headaches and heaves. Underclassmen attend parties tied to the Big Game, drink themselves insensible, and fall to their death off balconies. Its all been in the newspapers and other media, this shocking waste of promising young lives.

The most common response to accounts of injuries or death among such "adults" - those old enough to go to war, marry, vote, sign binding contracts, but not to buy a single draft beer - has been to further tighten age-based prohibition. Campuses and communities step up policing measures. Task forces produce ever-more-exotic ideas about how to quarantine young students from alcoholic beverages - even those students who demonstrate the ability to drink moderately and responsibly. Yet despite all the counter measures accompanied by mounting penalties for breaking the law, the tragedies continue. Why? Because the system of prohibition that now governs almost every U.S. institution of higher learning is ineffective and ill-founded.

At freshman-orientation sessions, at least half of the students are already regular drinkers, according to several national studies. The traditional newcomer, who is still in the majority on most campuses, immediately becomes a member of a peculiar demographic community: Almost everyone is 18-22 years old. Through fraternities, sororities, other campus organisations, dating, and less-formal socialising, this narrow age group constantly intermingles. In any social setting where alcohol is present, the law says those 21 and older may drink beer, wine, and distilled spirits in unlimited quantities - as long as they do not drive or appear intoxicated in public. Yet those who are 20 years and 364 days, or younger, must stick with soft drinks or become lawbreakers.

Should anyone be surprised that zero tolerance is met with rebellion and rule breaking? Outlandish behaviour is a typical reaction to prohibition, which is why the illegal speakeasies were always bawdier than the public bars that the Volstead Act shut down. Todays age-specific prohibition seems to be working no better than the 1920s version. Although a smaller percentage of young adults are now drinking than in the recent past, a sizeable minority is drinking recklessly.

Whats the solution?

Through our close relations with students over the years - two of us are professors and one is a student-affairs officer - weve become keen observers of student drinking and its outcomes. Weve often wondered why colleges havent developed a system of gradual access to alcohol beverages for 19- and 20-year-olds. Why not teach responsible drinking behaviour under supervision, rather than leave young adults to experiment on their own?

We would like to suggest an alternative to zero- tolerance policies that are prevalent today: a provisional drinking license. In more than 30 states, teenage drivers gain experience while holding special licenses that restrict when and how they may drive - for example, no late-night cruising is allowed. Such an approach permits a slow introduction to an adult privilege The same concept should apply to drinking.

What could be the elements of a provisional drinking license? There could be time and place restrictions. The license holder could drink, for example, only in an establishment where at least 75 percent of sales receipts were for food and only before 11pm. No bar or liquor-store purchases would be permitted. Moreover, a 19- or 20 year-old would have to undergo formal instruction about alcohol and pass a licensing exam. Parents and other authorities could unilaterally revoke or suspend the special license without which service or consumption would be illegal. In addition, the provisional license would not be accompanied by any change to the current zero-tolerance laws, by which drivers under 21 are considered legally drunk if their blood-alcohol content is greater than .02 percent.

We realise that a few young people would undoubtedly continue to drink too much, too fast, in risky setting, or for the wrong reasons. But for the Jenna and Barbara Bushes of the world (by all accounts they did not exhibit out-of-control drinking behaviour) and the vast majority of other college students who are eager to learn about drinking responsibly but are denied any sensible opportunities, clandestine over-indulgence could give way to public self-regulation.

The penalty for the abuse would be revocation of the privilege. Young people would learn to accept alcohol for what it is: a socially acceptable beverage in need of respect, not a source of magical empowerment or easy escape that increases with every gulp. Gone, too, would be the scenarios that invite contempt for the current law, such as the inability of two 20 year-olds to drink champagne at their own wedding.

At the colleges where we teach and work, we delight in seeing emerging adults grow in academic knowledge and in life skills, turning before our eyes into competent adults. To leave alcohol outside that process, the records shows, is foolish and dangerous. Its time to encourage a moderate approach rather than force more-dangerous behaviours underground to everyones detriment. Its time to open the doors to constructive debate and to teach through trust and potential rather than through blame, accusation, and guilt Its time to move beyond the forbidden-fruit syndrome - and its tragic consequences.

David J Hanson is a professor of sociology at the State university of New York at Potsdam Dwight B. Heath is a professor of anthropology at Brown University. Joel S. Rudy is a vice president and dean of students emeritus at Ohio University. Hanson and Heath are authors of several books on topics dealing with alcohol.