What should the legal drinking age be?

Most states in the nation adopted a minimum drinking age of 21 soon after federal passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which required states to maintain a minimum drinking age of 21. Under the Federal Aid Highway Act, States were required to enforce the minimum drinking age of 18 in order to avoid a 10% reduction in federal highway funds. The original intention of the law was to reduce the incidents of alcohol-related accidents among people under 21. But since passage of this legislation, and the raising of the drinking age in many states, the percentage of people who drink between the ages of 18 to 20 has skyrocketed. Many say the prohibitions have actually encouraged secretive binge drinking, more dangerous behavior, and less educational programming targeting this age group. Respected law enforcement officials and university presidents have recently called for changes in the federal law to permit states to lower the drinking age.

At age 18, people are legal adults. As much as their parents may think otherwise, they are no longer children. They have the right to vote and help choose the President of the United States. They can go to war to defend our country, and they can legally purchase guns and cigarettes. It is absolutely absurd that they cannot have a beer or glass of wine without fear of possible arrest and prosecution.

It's time for the nation to repeal these Prohibition-era laws and adopt a more intelligent, progressive, and educational approach to drinking among younger adults. These laws simply don't work, they aren't enforceable any longer, and if anything they are counterproductive. Literally millions of responsible young adults are already consuming alcohol and that's not going to change. What we need to do is stop wasting the taxpayers money chasing, charging and prosecuting responsible young adults who want to have a beer, and start putting the money where it ought to be, in promoting smart education about responsible drinking, and in pursuing far more serious criminals, including those at all ages who drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

--
Eric Paine
President & Founder
Drink at 18
Drink At 18

Like merry old England, 18 is an excellent year.

Return the drinking age to 18....but raise the driving age to 21. Young adults drinking at home or at a kegger in the woods pose far less risk to me than some reckless teenage idiot texting, or showing off in a car...

I see no overriding reason to change the law. It works and works decently as it is. Drinking is not a right.

Redress said:

I see no overriding reason to change the law. It works and works decently as it is. Drinking is not a right.

Click to expand...

Then what is it?

My logic has always been this: If you're old enough to go over to some ****ing desert and die for your country, then you're old enough to enjoy a nice cold beer. END OF STORY.

How about this:

The legal drinking age is whenever an adult responsible for the child allows them to drink, but the age requirement to purchase alcohol is somewhere in the 18 to 21 range.

Thus a (currently) underage person who wished to consume alcohol could do so at a party supervised by an adult, or at home under parent/guardian supervision, or at a restaurant with their parents/guardian’s permission.
And so on.

Jetboogieman said:

My logic has always been this: If you're old enough to go over to some ****ing desert and die for your country, then you're old enough to enjoy a nice cold beer. END OF STORY.

Click to expand...

They probably should raise the age to do that, too. Eighteen year olds really aren't mature enough to really understand what war is all about and what they're getting into by signing up.

ericpaine said:

Many say the prohibitions have actually encouraged secretive binge drinking, more dangerous behavior, and less educational programming targeting this age group. Respected law enforcement officials and university presidents have recently called for changes in the federal law to permit states to lower the drinking age.

Click to expand...

Binge drinking occurs even after 21. Whether it's done secretly or not makes little difference. It all depends on the person, and from my experience in college I have met few people who drink just to get buzzed.

I live in a college town and witness irresponsible and often times annoying drinkers every day. I certainly don't want that kind of behavior to spread to every town in America.

Take it from me, the "drinking education" programs are a joke. If someone here gets an underage... they are forced to take one of these classes and no one takes them seriously. All it is is an inconvenience both concerning time and money.

I do agree with you though, the education on drinking responsibly needs to be improved. And parents need to do a better job in encouraging responsible drinking. But lets start there before we change the drinking age. Change the drinking culture of young adults before saying "go buy as much alcohol as you want" at 18.

18 for beer and 21 for hard liquor

new coup for you said:

18 for beer and 21 for hard liquor

Click to expand...

I grew up in Ohio and they had a law similar to that. If you were 18 you could drink what was called 3.2% beer and not the higher alcoholic content beer, wine, or liquor.

We called the 3.2% beer "panther piss"