Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

On a July day in 1984 President Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, demanding that all states raise the drinking age to 21. If states didn’t comply “they would lose 10 percent of their federal highway construction dollars” (Guo, “Did the Supreme Court accidentally allow states to lower the drinking age with impunity?”). During the 1980’s, almost half of the states had a minimum drinking age of 18. By the end of the decade, all of the states had moved the drinking age to 21. The threat to funding caused some states to become upset. They didn’t like being pushed around. The case that resulted became known as South Dakota v. Dole. Ever since the case, states have been resistant to lowering the drinking age because they would risk losing 10 percent of their highway funding. Yet, the government is reluctant to lower the drinking age seeing it as an attack at their federal powers. What results is a drinking age of 21 in the United States centered on fiscal motives, but why put the restriction on that age?

Some countries chose a lower age, such as 18, the age at which many teenagers gain the responsibilities of full citizenship. Places like the US opt to follow traditional English Common Law in which people don’t officially become an adult until 21. The United States, in fact, has one of the highest drinking ages in the world. According to the Foundation for Economic Education, “Countries that compare in severity are only a few, including Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cameroon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan” (Tucker “Lower the Drinking Age!”). Most of the rest of the world settles at 16 for beer and 18 for liquor. However, the high drinking age in the United States seems to have its