Legal drinking age

Today's news is full of a story headlined by a consortium of college presidents who want to lower the national legal drinking age to 18. 

Without getting into a debate on this emotional topic, here's a short history of American drinking age limits.

From the end of Prohibition until 1984 minimum drinking ages were left up to the individual states with most using 21 as a benchmark.  As a result of the Vietnam turmoil and the argument that if a person was old enough at 18 to fight they were old enough to drink, the years 1970-1975 saw most states lower their legal drinking age from 21 to 18 or 19.

1984 saw the passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act which made 21 the legal age for the entire country.  States which did not enforce the age limit would be subject to a 10 percent reduction in their annual federal highway apportionment.

From Wiipedia a list of minimum drinking age around the world, country by country.

Comments

[Ron]

18 would seem to be a good age for allowing the careful consumption of alcohol. Anyone wanting to drink between the ages of 18 and 21 will do it anyway. Of course, the laws concerning drinking and driving should be strictly enforced.