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The United States has a long history of regulating alcohol. Of course
this manifested itself most strongly during Prohibition. When
Prohibition ended, "wet" states set a drinking age at the age of
majority, which was 21 at the time. In the early 1970s, when the age
of majority dropped to 18, most states also lowered their drinking
ages. Contrary to popular belief, this did not lead to increased
traffic fatalities.

In 1975, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, under
Morris Chafetz, started releasing information about an "epidemic" of
"teen alcohol abuse." A few years later, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
was founded. Between 1975 and 1984, major campaigns were launched
against alcohol abuse. These was generally beneficial, making
"designated driver" household words.

But at the same time, NIAAA and MADD began pushing for a national
drinking age set at 21. Some say this was done because the government
found it easier to put pressure on young people than more politically
powerful adults over 21. The US still has mostly lenient blood-alcohol
concentration limits and penalties for drunk driving for adults.

In 1984, Congress passed a law saying states had to raise their
drinking age to 21 or lose federal highway funds. Some states refused,
and it took the 1988 Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota v.
[Transportation Secretary Elizabeth] Dole to force them to do so.

Since then, MADD and the government have claimed that this law has
saved a bizarrely high number of lives, about 1,000 a year. If that
were true, there would have been a dramatic drop-off in
alcohol-related fatalities among youth compared to people over 21,
which did not happen.

The official position of the federal government is that all alcohol
use by people under 21 is alcohol abuse. This is an extremist attitude
not backed up by independent scientific literature on the subject.

For an excellent history and analysis of the law, see Chapter 7 of
"The Scapegoat Generation" by Mike A. Males.

Matt

arun@Glue.umd.edu (Arun Muthuswami) wrote:

>Hi:

>I have been following this thread for quite a while now and find it very interesting reading.
>Can anyone tell me why really the legal drinking age here in the US is 21? Why is it such a
>"big deal"? Is it because of crime, potential or pre-existing... why i ask this is because
>where I am from, the legal drinking age is 18 (Quebec, Canada)...even though teen drinking is
>prevalent, that hasn't stopped the age limit being increased. forgive me for asking such
>thought provoking Qs...just that this 21-stuff makes me wonder...

>Thanks...
>-- 
>uKn0wWh0:Rajnikant Jr! :D
>"It's Divine To Love, To Adore, A Feeling That's Sinful To Ignore."
>*************** arun@arun.net * http://www.arun.net ***************