Minimum Drinking Age Limitations

In 1984 Ronald Reagan proposed a new law that declared that the legal drinking age must raised up to 21 instead of the age of 18. The law was forced upon the states by threatening them by stating that the government will reduce their highway funding until the states passed the law. Of course all the states eventually change their legal drinking age to 21. Some critics believe that this law’s results have been very successful, however the law possesses many insecurities, but certain programs can be arranged to help educate teenagers on alcohol.

The stakeholder group that will gain most of the benefit from lowering the drinking age to 18 is the alcohol companies. In a sense, the stakeholders between ages 18 and 20 and alcohol companies go hand in hand. Because these young adults are, for the most part, eager to purchase alcohol, the potential skyrocket in sales for that age group would ensure massive profits for alcohol companies. This is made clear considering that underage drinkers in the United States consumed “an estimated 19.7% of the total alcohol consumed”

In 1984, Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This act incentivized states to raise their legal drinking ages to 21 (Dejong). These incentives were actually punishments for not following the law though. As the NIAAA explains, the Federal government can without ten percent of federal funding for highways from states that do not prohibit people under age 21 from buying or publically possessing any alcoholic beverage (NIAAA). With states being so opposed to the highways and interstates in the first place because of construction costs (Berkely), of course they wouldn’t want to have to fund any of it themselves. Now the real question: did this law decrease alcohol-related

I. Introduction: Starting in 1970 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18. Another 8 reduced it to 19 or 20. However, these states noticed increases in alcohol-related fatalities among teenagers and young adults. As a result, of the 29 states that had lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By 1984, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic liquor. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. The states who raised it were given highway funding by the

In 1980 after Candy Lightner, a mother of a thirteen-year-old girl was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver, she was galvanized by the tragedy and founded of the organization MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). MADD lobbied for the law after many deaths of children in result of drunk driving, and activist who protested against the organization was accused of promoting drunk driving. Since then, they are still to this day fighting to keep the uniform minimum drinking age at 21.

You know an issue has evoked large levels of community discussion when interest groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and rappers like J-kwon are telling us the same thing: teen drinking is very bad. But discussion on the topic tends to vary far more than that. Congress discussed the issue in 1984, with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act: an act that withheld federal highway funding from states without a minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21. The motives behind the act can’t be summed up in just residual American puritan values; it wasn’t aiming to ruin teenaged fun, but reduce deaths by drunk drivers and cut down on alcohol dependence and abuse. It’s been over 30

A highly controversial topic that continues to rise is the debate of the legal drinking age and whether it should lower from twenty-one, or remain. On July 17, 1984, Ronald Reagan was in office when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed, prohibiting anyone under the age of twenty-one from publicly possessing and purchasing alcohol. After the Act was passed in 1984, the states that failed to abide by Ronald Reagan’s National Minimum Drinking Age Act were withheld from federal highway construction funds. By creating this punishment, states were almost forced to comply with the new legal addition. Every state adopted the new law by the year of 1988 (Underage Drinking). The act itself did take away the majority of drinking privileges, but did not take away the entirety of them. Omissions within the National Minimum Drinking Age Act included consumption for: religious purposes, educational functions, guardian consent, and employment. Some states are stricter on alcohol consumption for minors, while some allow the exceptions within the act. With this new controversial issue put into effect across the entire United States, the population immediately took sides. Although many individuals believe once someone becomes eighteen, and is officially an adult, they should hold the right and responsibility to drink as they please, evidence reveals early alcohol consumption correlates with detrimental health

In order to prevent more deaths, 24 of the 29 states that had originally lowered their drinking age quickly raised the age back to 21 between 1976 and 1984. In 1984, there were still three states left that still allowed 18-year-olds to drink any and all types of alcoholic liquor. The other remaining states had adopted some sort of stair-step age requirement policy that was based on the type of liquor being consumed with higher levels of alcohol requiring higher ages to drink. Federal transportation authorities viewed this wide range of varying state laws as a real safety problem for all roads and traffic. Alcohol-related traffic injuries or deaths were increasing and many of these accidents were a result of kids traveling from their home states to neighboring states that had lower drinking ages and then becoming injured or killed as they returned to their home states drunk. These borders to states that had differing drinking ages and many accidents became known as “blood borders” for obvious reasons. Congress wanted a solution so they enacted the National Minimum Drinking Age Act which was recommended by President Reagan’s Commission on Drunk Driving in 1984. States were going to lose 10% of their federal highway funds unless they raised the minimum drinking age in their state to 21 for all alcoholic beverages. All the states had complied after a short time so that now all 50 states have a minimum drinking age of 21. There is

Without a doubt, the United States has been facing serious national problems with underage drinking. Depending on personal ideologies, some people might not agree that the current minimum drinking age of twenty-one is based on scientific facts rather then ideology of prohibitionism. For example, since 1975 over seventeen thousand lives have been saved since the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was changed to age twenty-one (Balkin 167). This shows that even over a short amount of time, a higher MLDA helps decrease the risk of teen suicides, accidents and overdose deaths. However, this widely debated topic has inevitably brought attention to the plethora of supporting and opposing viewpoints. The minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one

Laws surrounding alcohol use and consumption in the United States all stem from one major root: the Prohibition Era of the 1920s. The Prohibition Era lasted almost thirteen years and banned the production, the distribution, and the sale of alcohol. In 1933, the Prohibition Act was repealed and states designated their own legal drinking age. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Age act was passed and raised the drinking age in the United States to twenty-one. This law caused uproar in states that had declared the minimum drinking age to be eighteen. Alcohol consumption is a major factor in cultural and social matters and the National Minimum Drinking Age has affected everybody. This law is unjust

There is opposition and support on both sides of the issue including a coalition founded in 2008 by a group of academic leaders called the Amethyst Initiative who support lowering the drinking age to 18. In 1984, after Candy Lightner suffered the loss of her daughter at the hands of a drunk driver in 1980, she created Mothers Against

The late 1970s and 1980s were flooded with many publicized with studies stating that teenage alcohol use was out of control and was a growing problem. This brought on a huge amount of anti-alcohol legislation and eventually, after tough political battle, the drinking age was set in 1984. A strategy to create a nation-wide age-21 MLDA change at the federal level, however, faced a significant hurdle. The 21st amendment of the US Constitution passed in 1933 that repealed prohibition also gave individual states the

The National Minimum Drinking Act of 1984 imposed that all states would raise the minimum age of being able to purchase and have public possession of alcohol to twenty-one years of age. If the states opposed to the standards, they would lose a portion of their highway funds under the Federal Highway Aid Act. Today, the minimum legal drinking age should remain twenty-one years old as lowering it to eighteen would cause an unsafe environment, affect teenagers negatively, and will create a massive economic problem.

First of all, the history of alcohol consumption is crucial in understanding the argument. Prior to 1919, there were no restrictions on alcohol besides government taxes on its production and sale. In the year 1919, the eighteenth amendment to the constitution was put in place- issuing a complete ban on alcohol. The period that followed was called prohibition, which lasted thirteen years or until 1932 (BreakingAmerica). Although some may think that prohibition was a success it was actually a failure. During the prohibition, the crime rates increased and the economy suffered (Thornton). When it was over, states established their own drinking ages, with every state deciding on the age twenty-one. However, in 1970 there was a lot of political tension from the Vietnam War and the Cold War. This tension led to decreased MLDAs in some states (BreakingAmerica). Then, in 1984 the Minimum Legal Drinking

For many adults, alcohol is considered a luxury, but it might be better for young adults and teens to hold off on this forbidden fruit until they of proper age. The minimum drinking age has been a topic of controversy in Ontario for a while, changing from 21, to 18, and now 19. While the consumption of alcohol in regulated small amounts is okay, many younger adults and teens lack the necessary self control, and indulge in binge drinking. This type of behaviour can often have a negative effect on their bodies. There are also major concerns regarding road safety, as car accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver are more frequent in those of younger age in comparison to their older counterparts. The current minimum legal drinking age is too low, as there have been more cases of underage drinking, and abuse of other substances. All of these issues could be avoided if the legal age for consumption of alcohol in Ontario was raised back to the age of 21.