Raising the minimum drinking age has led to a decline in overall alcohol consumption among all young adults, even when alcohol is easily accessible. Because the MLDA was always at the discretion of the state, the law does not violate the 21st Amendment, which reserved the right to regulate alcohol for all responsibilities not expressly assigned to the federal government to the states. [5] However, since the law controlled distribution from $8 million to $99 million, depending on the size of the state, the law provided a strong incentive for states to change the drinking age to 21. [5] In 1995, all 50 states, two permanently inhabited territories, and DC were compliant, but Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (and Guam until 2010) remained at 18, despite losing 10% of federal funding for highways. Since then, arguments against the age of alcohol consumption have persisted. Some argue that the illegality of alcohol gives it a “taboo appeal” and actually increases rates of underage drinking. Others argue that if you can fight in war, you should be able to drink. While this age may seem a bit random (maybe even arbitrary), since you`re a legal adult at 18, Congress didn`t just choose the number of a hat. There is a long and rich history about alcohol in America and why the legal drinking age is set at 21.
Consuming alcohol while the brain is still developing can also increase the risk of alcohol dependence. A 2011 study of 600 Finnish twins by researchers at Indiana University found that people who drank regularly as teenagers were more likely to develop alcohol dependence later in life. The study asked twins about their drinking habits at age 18 and again at age 25. The study of the twins is particularly noteworthy because the twins had the same environmental and genetic background, factors that could influence their alcohol behavior. However, these changes were soon followed by studies showing an increase in road crash deaths due to the decrease in MLDA. In response to these findings, many states have raised the legal drinking age to 19 (and sometimes to 20 or 21). [5] In 1984, the National Minimum Legal Drinking Act, drafted by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and influenced by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), required all states to set their minimum purchasing age at 21. Any state that chooses not to comply with the law would withhold up to 10 percent of its federal highway funding. Some states allow parents to do this with their own child (rarely, if ever, someone else`s child), but there is no evidence that this approach actually works.3 In fact, there is evidence to the contrary.
When teens feel they have their parents` consent to drink, they increasingly do so when they are not with their parents. When parents have concrete and enforced rules for alcohol, young people drink less. References 3. Fallen, James. Excerpted from “Chapter 2: Federalism: Resolute, the Federal Government Should Restore the Freedom of Each State to Set Its Drinking Age.” in Ellis, Richard and Nelson, Michael (eds.) Debating Reform. CQPress Publishers, Fall 2009. The CDC still calls underage drinking “a public health concern.” History says no. When U.S. states had a lower legal drinking age, the drinking problem was worse for minors.3 For example, before the legal drinking age of 21 was introduced by all states, underage drunk drivers were involved in more than twice as many fatal motor vehicle accidents as they are today.3 References 3. Has fallen, James. Excerpted from “Chapter 2: Federalism: Resolute, the Federal Government Should Restore the Freedom of Each State to Set Its Drinking Age.” in Ellis, Richard and Nelson, Michael (eds.) Debating Reform.
CQPress Publishers, Fall 2009. In 1998, the National Youth Rights Association was established to reduce the drinking age to 18. In 2004, the president of Middlebury College in Vermont, John McCardell Jr., wrote in the New York Times that “the age of 21 is bad social policy and a terrible law” that has worsened the college alcohol problem. [9] Groups opposed to the minimum of 21 include Choose Responsibility, the Amethyst Initiative, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. In the 1960s, Congress and state legislatures came under increasing pressure to lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18. This was largely due to the Vietnam War, in which many young men who were not allowed to vote (or drink legally) were conscripted into the war and therefore had no way of influencing the people they sent to risk their lives. “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” was a slogan commonly used by proponents of lowering the voting age. The slogan dates back to World War II, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the military age to 18. With the lowering of the voting age to 18, the legal drinking age (MLDA) has also been lowered, as the ability to vote (and for men to be unwittingly conscripted into the military) should also allow for the legal consumption of alcoholic beverages. 1176-1919: No national drinking age. Prior to prohibition, the drinking age varied from state to state, with most states imposing no drinking age.
But the legal drinking age has not been set for medical reasons. While this is not the only contributing factor to student alcohol consumption, the status of bootlegging alcohol seems to fill it with mysticism. Therefore, alcohol consumption and abuse are considered and should be demanding. [16] When Pete Coors raised the drinking age as a campaign issue during the United States in 2004. In the Colorado Senate race, Republican leaders praised his stance on state rights, but distanced themselves from their obvious self-interest. [13] [14] The Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) laws set the legal age at which a person can purchase alcoholic beverages. The MLDA in the United States is 21 years. However, prior to the enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, the legal age to purchase alcohol varied from state to state.1 The drinking age was lowered to 21 with federal highway funding. This answers the legal question of why the drinking age is 21, but what was the underlying logic of the original policy? Did lawmakers simply pick 21 out of a hat because they wanted seniors to learn the nuances of bar culture before graduation? Almost. The concept of a person reaching the age of 21 dates back centuries in English common law; 21 was the age at which a person could, among other things, vote and become a knight. Given that a person was an official adult at the age of 21, it seemed reasonable that he could drink even then. Prior to 1984, some states had set the legal drinking age at 18, 19 or 20.
In the years following the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, alcohol consumption fell by 19 per cent among 18- to 20-year-olds and by 14 per cent among 21- to 25-year-olds. This was particularly interesting because research has shown that most minors report that alcohol is “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain. When it comes to alcohol, even small behavioral checks seem important, Glasner-Edwards says. “If it takes more effort, it saves the person some time to think about how important it is for them to drink at that time or to consider the possible negative consequences of alcohol consumption,” she explains. “It seems that these barriers are significant for young people to benefit from these minimum age laws. Only seven countries are as old as the United States, which begs the question: Why is ours so high? Organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving have begun advocating for a uniform national drinking age of 21 to eliminate these blood thresholds and keep alcohol out of reach of supposedly less mature 18-year-olds. As a result, President Reagan signed the aforementioned 1984 National Minimum Age Age. “Why 21 years” of MADD? The website announces that “more than 25,000 lives have been saved in the United States thanks to the legal drinking age of 21.” Traffic reports show a 61% decrease in alcohol-related deaths among drivers under 21 years of age between 1982 and 1998. The raw numbers show that the number of drunk driving deaths has declined markedly since the early 1980s. Since 1982, drunk driving fatalities have decreased by 51%. Among drivers under 21, drunk driving deaths dropped by 80 percent. Late 1960s and 1970s: lowering of the drinking age.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, nearly all states lowered the drinking age to 18. This led to a dramatic increase in alcohol-related car accidents, and drunk driving was considered a public health crisis. In the mid-1970s, 60 percent of all road deaths were alcohol-related, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH). More than two-thirds of car accidents involving people aged 16 to 20 were alcohol-related.