The Legal Drinking Age: Pressing the Limit

The Legal Drinking Age: Pressing the Limit

There are only five countries in the world that have a legal drinking age limit of twenty-one and the United States is one of the five countries (“Minimum Legal Drinking Ages around the World”). The legal drinking age has always been a controversial issue in America. On January 16, 1920, all alcohol use was prohibited in the United States. The problems that associated with drinking, however, did not stop as many people continued to brew and drink alcohol. During the prohibition period, alcohol became directly related to organized crime which caused more problems to society. This idea is a basis for many people’s arguments today that are in favor of lowering the drinking age. Their belief is that it would be beneficial if the drinking age were lowered and reference the prohibition period when prohibiting alcohol was more detrimental towards society than helpful. Alcohol was made legal again on December 5, 1933, and the legal drinking age varied among different states (Miron and Tetelbaum 318). Beginning in the 1970s, most states moved the legal drinking age to eighteen, but this did not last long. On July 17, 1984, President Ronald Reagan passed The Federal Uniform Drinking Act (FUDAA), threatening to withhold funds from states that did not raise their legal drinking age to twenty-one (Miron and Tetelbaum 317). Since 1984, the legal drinking age has been twenty-one in the United States and throughout these years there has always been those who believe the legal drinking age should be lowered.

There are many different perspectives on whether the legal drinking age should be lowered. Supporters of the legal drinking age being twenty-one typically argue that those under the age of twenty-one that partake in drinking alcohol are not responsible enough to consume alcohol. They also argue that they have not fully matured physically and that by consuming alcohol at this age causes potential health issues in the person’s future. Opponents of these beliefs argue that they are considered mature enough to vote, serve and die for our country in the military, be a legal adult, and go to college at the age of eighteen, so how are they not considered mature enough to drink an alcoholic beverage (Streeter). The legal drinking age has recently become a major debate as college presidents and professors of one hundred different colleges are pushing to lower the drinking age to eighteen because they feel it will reduce binge drinking among college students (Fearon). The Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) organization, however, are opposed to this movement because they feel that lowering the drinking age will only cause more problems among young adults. Police enforcement understand the arguments that college presidents and professors are making and admit that they are sufficient arguments, but in the end evidence shows that lowering the drinking age