New drinking age!

[muon2]

I'm confused. Isn't legalizing alcohol at a certain age a state's issue? Or is it a federal one? Is it the same with cigarettes?

By the constitutional amendment (21) that repealed prohibition, the regulation of the sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages was made a state issue. The Congress found a back door to regulation when they tied federal transportation funding to states having a minimum age of 21 to purchase alcohol. Those states that resisted the federal law lost in court.

[Defarge]

As a High School Student I got to say that the drinking age in my area is entirely disregarded.  Virtually every social event the town seems to be graced with alchohol.  Honestly, it seems to be simply a rite of passage, with a forbidden fruit effect that if anything encourages drinking.  But you have to draw an arbitrary line somewhere, so why not keep it at 21?

[PBrunsel]

Write-in: Prohibition

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I like 19 like most of Canada.

[MissCatholic]

All Euorpean Countires i can think off have a drinking age of less than 21.

So move it to 18. Why is it so high?

[Nym90]

I would say it should be lowered to 18. If you can vote, go to war, and otherwise enjoy all of the other privledges and responsibilities of adulthood, I don't see why drinking should be any different.

[KillerPollo]

I would say it should be lowered to 18. If you can vote, go to war, and otherwise enjoy all of the other privledges and responsibilities of adulthood, I don't see why drinking should be any different.

yeah, They dont let me buy a can o' Molson, yet they allow me to purchase a 1/2 Liter can of Monster Energy Drink, which is basically the opposite of beer, and caffeine is more harmful thgan alcohol.

[Redefeatbush04]

I would say it should be lowered to 18. If you can vote, go to war, and otherwise enjoy all of the other privledges and responsibilities of adulthood, I don't see why drinking should be any different.

yeah, They dont let me buy a can o' Molson, yet they allow me to purchase a 1/2 Liter can of Monster Energy Drink, which is basically the opposite of beer, and caffeine is more harmful thgan alcohol.

Very true....the government seems kind of random with what it does and doesn't ban. Marijuana is better for you than tobacco, and doesn't impare your judgement as much as alcohol, yet tobacco is legal at 18 and alcohol at 21 but marijuana isn't legal at all. An 8 year old can drink 4 energy drinks but a 20 year old can't even have the odouls non-alcoholic beer (in most restaurants) because it contains traces of alcohol.

[muon2]

I would say it should be lowered to 18. If you can vote, go to war, and otherwise enjoy all of the other privledges and responsibilities of adulthood, I don't see why drinking should be any different.

yeah, They dont let me buy a can o' Molson, yet they allow me to purchase a 1/2 Liter can of Monster Energy Drink, which is basically the opposite of beer, and caffeine is more harmful thgan alcohol.

There are many states that would agree with Nym's assessment. States generally want to curb drinking among high school students, but the best age to control that varied greatly before the national standard went into place. One result of the varying state standards was the large amount of driving that took place to get to a state that was legal. I went to high school in suburban St Paul in the 1970's, and there were many road trips by my classmates to go 30 miles to WI to drink.

The prevalence of drivers with access to a car was increasing steadily in the late 20th C. There were too many studies that related drinking to traffic fatalities to ignore, and many made it clear that younger drivers were most at risk of poor judgement. So, the federal drinking age is directly tied to its impact on driving. If more responsibility were shown by young drivers, their case would be stronger.

To answer KP, I am not aware of any study linking increased traffic deaths to caffeine. Caffeine may have other harmful effects, just as alcohol has shown some potential beneficial health effects in small doses. Those effects are not the reason for the controls. It's all about drinking and driving.