After the 26th amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in 1971, 29 states responded by dropping the drinking age to 18, 19, or 20.
When reports of higher rates of teen traffic deaths began to emerge, spooked legislators passed the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The act allowed Congress to withhold 10 percent of a state’s federal highway funds if it didn’t up the minimum drinking age to 21.
Voila. Congress successfully bypassed states’ rights and federalism. All states raised their drinking age to 21 by 1988.
Fun fact: before Prohibition, there was no drinking age. A few states had seemingly arbitrary restrictions on purchasing alcohol. Before then, anyone could buy alcohol if they could reach the bar.
But Prohibition changed the way people understand the government’s role between the individual and mind-altering substances. Suddenly, the government had to help people protect themselves and their kids from their own choices.
It’s a noble experiment that failed.
Prohibiting young adults from drinking has created toxic mindsets about alcohol and has simply failed to prevent drinking. 17.5 percent of all consumer spending on alcohol is from underage drinking. That’s $22.8 billion in booze. And 25.9 percent of underage drinkers meet clinical criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence, compared to 9.6 percent of adults.
In order to help young adults develop healthy understandings of alcohol, the drinking age should be lowered to 18.
Rather than preventing underage drinking, the current minimum age simply sends it underground. Party-ready 19-year-olds are going to drink regardless of legality. “Fight for your right,” and everything. Prohibiting college-age adults from drinking legally forces them out of bars, restaurants, and other arguably safe places and into the basements of frat houses and back alleys behind the club. “Pre-gaming” before an event or party becomes a must when you can’t buy a beer or a martini with your friends.
When they drink in secret, underagers frantically attempt at oblivion. 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by those under 21 in the United States is consumed in the form of binge drinking, the Center for Disease Control reported. Swiss researchers found that those who binge before events are far more likely to end their night in blackouts, unprotected sex, or injury.
Allowing adults between the ages of 18 and 21 to drink would give them the chance to learn safe habits before becoming independent on the job or at college. 136 presidents and chancellors of colleges across America signed a statement saying they support this position. The leaders believe that treating adults like children simply means they will behave like children.
Because many consider the drinking age a ridiculous and antiquated law, lots of parents, educators, and law enforcement officials let offenses slide. That treatment of drinking and the ease of non-compliance indicates to students that it’s ok to break the law, as long as you are caught by the right people. This creates yet another toxic mindset towards the law and drinking.
Prohibition in the 1850s and 1920s failed. Likewise, the current prohibition on underage drinking simply does not keep young adults from dangerous behaviors. Lowering the drinking age would help shift perspectives on alcohol from a rite of passage or act of rebellion to a normal part of life. Restricting drinking prevents booze from being demystified.
Anyone that opposes lowering the drinking age should try an experiment at any college, public or private, across the country: give a 19-year-old $20 and see what happens. If the kid is a cute girl, the cash isn’t even necessary.
Any semi-resourceful kid will have a handle of cheap vodka within 30 minutes. The drinking age just means that kid will put the “rage” in underage on the crowded dance floor of a smelly frat house instead of a bar.