Uniform Drinking Age

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).

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, Congress amended the Federal Aid Highway Act, adding a conditional clause that would require Secretary of Transportation, then Elizabeth Dole, to withhold 10% of a state’s federal highway funds if the state refused to increase the minim legal drinking age to 21. This was called the National Minimum Drinking

This was a very controversial move by the government, as states had all had different drinking ages, and many people felt as if the government was over stepping their boundaries. (DrinkingMap.com) The National Minimum Drinking Age Act had loopholes that the states could utilize. For example, the NMDAA stipulates that people can not publicly possess and purchase alcohol unless they were 21, it did not say anything about drinking alcohol. So, 41 states have set their own allowances for when people can drink.

He believed that before this act was passed, people were getting away with crimes. They would kill someone while driving drunk and then plead not guilty by insanity. Reagan criticized the liberals in the House of Representatives by saying that they hid “behind parliamentary maneuvers” to remain from receiving votes on anticrime bills. There was hostility received from the states who did not want to raise their drinking age to 21. To get the states to cooperate, a loophole was created. If a state refused to raise their legal drinking age to 21, they would lose 10% of their funding for public transportation, and highways under the Federal Highway Act. By 1988 every state passed a law that would raise their drinking age to 21; they did it to receive all of the money that they were initially receiving for public transportation and highways. This made the law a

Towards the end of the 1970 the President and the government were concerned about the legal drinking age. When the President, Ronald Reagan noticed the ridiculous amount of public health and safety issues he passed an act. For instance in 1982, President Ronald Reagan confronted a Presidential Commission officer on Drunk Driving because of the research that he found on younger drinking ages that had increased alcohol-related highway deaths. It was about thirty years ago when President Reagan passed a law in 1984, called the minimum drinking age act. The minimum drinking age act required America’s states to raise the age to 21 for purchasing and having public possession of alcohol by October 1986. For each state that don’t follow this law

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

On July 17 the United States Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. Signed by President Ronald Regan, which requires that states prohibit people under the age of 21 from purchasing or publicly process alcoholic beverages as a condition of receiving State highway funds. Initially intended as a comprehensive approach to reduce the number of alcohol related deaths on the nations highways. Not prohibiting a person under 21 from drinking under certain exceptions some such as religious purposes, when accompanied by a parent, spouse or legal guardian age 21 or older and medical purposes to name a few. Increasing the minimum legal drinking age has caused more chaos and harm than good due to the amount of restrictions relating to the initial purpose.

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

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

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

On July 17th, 1984, President Reagan passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (1). This meant that in order to purchase and publicly posses alcohol, one must be twenty-one years old (1). Today, many push for a reversion back to a drinking age of eighteen years old. The reasons on both sides are many, and all of them will be explored and diagnosed. As the reasons pile on, though, it will become clear that the drinking age should return to eighteen.

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

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

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.