Uniform Drinking Age

minimum drinking age to 21. States that did not risked lowering the amount of highway

The national minimum drinking age in The United States is stated to be anyone under the age of 21 years can not consume or purchase any alcoholic beverage; this law was passed on July 17,1984 by President Reagan. Nearly 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually making it the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Many People would agree that alcohol should not be present to children under the age of 21 years. There has been many debates on whether or not the drinking age should be lowered to 18 years of age. “Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states lowered their age for drinking alcohol. The results were catastrophic. Highway deaths among teenagers and young adults skyrocketed. Immediately, states began raising the minimum

People have been arguing for years about who should have more power, either the federal government or the state. People arguing that the states should have more power than the government because they care more about the people. Then other people will say that the federal should have majority of the power since they oversee everything the states do. I believe that the federal government and the state government should have shared power, but I think the federal government should have the powers such as declaring war and things to help the people as a whole. Then the states should have the power to do what they think is the best things for the people of their state.

In 1984, the American government raised the minimum national drinking age from 18 to 21 as a method to reduce the number of car crashes and deaths caused by underage drunk drivers. The government placed the minimum drinking age law in the Federal Aid Highway Act, and by doing that states were not technically required to keep their minimum drinking age at 21. Given the fact that the law was a part of the Highway Act, if a state wanted to establish a different minimum drinking age, they would be required to surrender ten percent of their highway funds (Messamore). In 1987, after the act was passed, South Dakota challenged the law by changing their minimum drinking age to 19 and were brought to court in the case South Dakota vs. Dole. The court used the 27th amendment, which limits government spending power, to achieve their federal objectives. In a 7-2 decision, it was decided that Congress was able to use financial penalties on states that did not comply with the law (South Dakota v. Dole). Different federal, state and local laws help to decide alcohol 's "role" in our country. The different governments worked together to decide what laws would be put in place regarding manufacturing alcohol, selling alcohol, who can drink, and any responses to alcohol-related problems (Alcohol Policy). The brain is not fully developed until age 25 and alcohol can affect the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays an important role in the formation of new memories. Several people may

President Reagan signed the aforementioned National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. This law basically told states that they had to enact a minimum drinking age of 21. But do you think that lawmakers just started counting and stopped at 21 and thought 21 was the best number. Wrong! The concept that a person becomes a full adult at age 21 dates back centuries in English common law; 21 was the age at which a person could, among other things, vote and become a knight. Since a person was an official adult at age 21, it seemed to make sense that they could drink then, too. [ http://theweek.com/articles/468573/why-drinking-age-21]

Converse to the ideals of 18 to 20 year olds, the federal government favors the current drinking age and deters states from lowering them. Between 1970 and 1982, 36 states lowered their individual drinking ages to 18, 19 or 20 (Searles). A major problem that occurred during those times was the “blood boarder” incidents. Teenagers living adjacent to states with lower drinking ages would cross the boarder to buy alcohol, then drive back under the influence. In order to prevent the increase in accidents and fatalities linked to these occurrences, the federal government (with significant lobbying from Mothers Against Drunk Driving) passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. To ensure that all states complied with it, the federal government would cut 10% of highway funding to any state with a drinking age lower than 21 (Searles).

For many years, the debate about the legal drinking age has been prolonged. In the mid-1930s, under the 21st Amendment, the federal law to drink was age 21; however, states were given the option to set their own legal drinking age. During the 1970s, 30 states had a legal drinking age ranging from 18 to 20. Ten years in, the death toll rose from 10 to 40 percent in states that had lowered their drinking age (Barnhill, 2014). After many observations of traffic accidents involving drunk teenagers, the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving or (MADD) acted by educating the public of the dangers of drunk driving, and to speak for stronger drunk driving laws. This received so much publicity that President Reagan signed a bill into

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.

In 1982, President Reagan created the PCADD Presidential Commission against Drunk Driving. He wanted recommendations on how to decrease the drunk driving epidemic, which resulted in using a legal age limit for drinking to intimidate adult people into abiding by the law. As Choose Responsibly explains, the recommendations backfired and people started paying more

On July 1, 1971 the 26th amendment was passed which lowered the minimum age to vote from twenty one to eighteen years old. Shortly after the amendment was passed twenty nine states across America started lowering the drinking age from 21 to either 18,19, or 20 years old. This new freedom for young adults only lasted for a brief time by 1984 the Uniform Drinking Age Act was passed. The Uniform Drinking Age Act forced states to change the drinking age back to twenty one years old; by reducing the federal transportation funding, for each state that did not have a minimum drinking age of21. This act has caused controversy for years, there even is group of 136 college presidents called Amethyst Initiative that support a lower minimum legal

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

The United States’ minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of twenty one is almost a perfect example of a policy with unrealistic expectations and serious unintended consequences. The current policy that the United States has in effect criminalizes youth who consume alcohol at less than twenty one years of age. Young adults are going to drink under twenty one, so why shouldn’t the United States lower the MLDA to eighteen? Following Prohibition in 1933, many states made their MLDA twenty one. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, many states lowered it to eighteen to match the drafting age (Alcohol Policy MD). President Reagan passed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed to prohibit anyone under the age of 21 to consume or purchase alcohol. Extensive lobbying from various groups contributed in speeding up the process of passing the law. One group in particular was called Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD. The founder lost her daughter to a drunk driver in a car accident. She gained an immense amount of support from congress in enacting this law, which was enacted in July 17, 1984. It was passed in response to the epidemic of traffic deaths that were related to drunk driving in the 1970s. The passing of this law allowed the executive, judicial, and legislative branch to work together and make a decision that would protect young

On July of 1984, the national drinking age was changed from eighteen to twenty-one. This law was passed thanks to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MAAD). MAAD was founded by Candy Lightner, a mother who lost her daughter to a drink driver. “In 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, or MAAD, was founded by Candy Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter was killed on her way home from a school carnival by a drunk driver. The driver had three previous DUI convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. When MAAD was founded in 1980, more than 21,000 people were killed in drunk driving crashes each year. Lightner and MAAD helped to change

How many people here believe that the drinking age should be changed to eighteen years old in the United states? The drinking age in the United states has been twenty one since 1984 when all 50 states decided to pass they would pass the National minimum drinking age act. This bill required all of the states to have a drinking age of twenty one. If the states did not comply with the federal drinking laws they would lose ten percent of their national highway funding. This would be dramatic loss of money for the state funding its road repair programs. This pretty much forced all of the states to agree that now the drinking age would be raised to twenty one instead of eighteen.