And, just maybe, statistics.
Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws
The 21 Law Saves Lives
• By the end of 2005, the 32 minimum drinking age law had saved nearly 25,000 American lives. In fact, the law saves approximately 1,000 lives a year.
ii • Since the early 1960's, the number of young people killed annually in crashes involving drunk drivers under 21 has been cut in half, from more than 5,000 young people in the early 1980s to nearly 2,000 in 2005.
iii • In 2005, 2.035 youth ages 15 to 20 were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes, translating to 33 percent of all fatalities in that age group.
iv • Research indicates that when the minimum legal drinking age is 21, people under 21 drink less overall and continue to do so through their early 20's.
v • When the drinking age has been lowered, injury and death rates significantly increase.
vi • The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reviewed nearly 50 peer-reviewed studies of countries that had changed their drinking age and found that lowering the minimum drinking age to 18 increases fatalities by 10 percent.
For link to the pdf, Google "Underage Drinking and the 21 Legal Drinking Age--MADD.
