Legal Drinking Age

Lowering of the Legal Drinking Age to 18
      Donald Sims
      University of Phoenix

      The current legal drinking age in the United States is set at 21 years; however, many young people begin drinking at a younger age in hiding making the negative impact of high set age important to the policymakers, the community, and other stakeholders. The current drinking age limit sets to ensure that those that engage in alcohol drinking are competent enough to make informed decisions and accept the responsibility attributed to drinking. Nevertheless, the approach is not effective as evidenced by increased cases of underage and binge drinking in colleges, requiring another approach that will effectively respond to the needs of the current underage drinkers. An appropriate and effective approach is to reduce the drinking age to eighteen years and then put in place strategies to ensure accountable drinking that include role model training, and learning programs.
      Statute
      According to the Minimum drinking Age Act of 1984, the legal drinking age is 21 years of age. The purpose of this legislation to establish and enforce a uniform drinking age across states to ensure that some states to do not have a lower minimum age that would cause minors to travel across states to purchase and consumer alcohol (American Medical Association (AMA), 2009). To ensure compliance, the Act mandated a reduction in federal transportation funds for states that did not comply with the stipulated age limit. The enactment of the legislation counteracted the reduction of minimum drinking age that took place between 1970 and 1975, when 29 states lowered the age to 18, 19, and 20 years following the reduction of other minimum age limits such as in voting (AMA, 2009). During this period, scientist began studying the impact of lowered minimum drinking age to motor vehicle accidents in the United States. This research showed that in most cases, alcohol related accidents were the leading... [continues]

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