Spring Break
American Spirits: The Drinking Age Debate
Timothy Bleasdale
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Focus
During the Vietnam War, lawmakers around the country recognized the hypocrisy of forcing people as young as 18 to fight in a foreign war when they were not even allowed to vote. In response the federal voting age was lowered to 18, a move which nearly all states mimicked, lowering their drinking age to 18 at the same time as they lowered their voting age. However, in the late '70s and early '80s there were a number of highly publicized studies claiming that the number of drunk driving fatalities was turning into a devastating problem of epidemic proportions. By the mid-1980s Congress had decided to address the problem and drafted the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. When President Ronald Reagan signed the act into law, it effectively forced the states to raise their legal drinking age to 21.
This controversial law required all states to raise their minimum drinking age to 21 in order to keep their portion of federal-aid highway funds. While the law doesn't violate the constitution (states were given the option to not raise the limit), many opponents have called the law legislative extortion.
The renewed push to lower the drinking age has brought many of these issues back to the forefront of debate. States like Vermont are re-raising the question of states' rights in this issue and veterans like Johnson are forcing politicians in the limelight take a stance on the "old enough to die but not to drink" dilemma.
But in the renewed debate, many opponents of the national minimum drinking age are taking a new approach - debunking or redirecting the major claims of a connection between drunk driving fatalities and drinking between the ages of 18 and 21. Beckner told "60 Minutes" the effects that he has observed as a police officer. Beckner claims that the level of drinking between the ages of 18 and 21 has actually increased since the passage of the law. The law, he claims, has helped to create an "underground culture that encourages binge drinking without any oversight or supervision."
This controversial law required all states to raise their minimum drinking age to 21 in order to keep their portion of federal-aid highway funds. While the law doesn't violate the constitution (states were given the option to not raise the limit), many opponents have called the law legislative extortion.
The renewed push to lower the drinking age has brought many of these issues back to the forefront of debate. States like Vermont are re-raising the question of states' rights in this issue and veterans like Johnson are forcing politicians in the limelight take a stance on the "old enough to die but not to drink" dilemma.
But in the renewed debate, many opponents of the national minimum drinking age are taking a new approach - debunking or redirecting the major claims of a connection between drunk driving fatalities and drinking between the ages of 18 and 21. Beckner told "60 Minutes" the effects that he has observed as a police officer. Beckner claims that the level of drinking between the ages of 18 and 21 has actually increased since the passage of the law. The law, he claims, has helped to create an "underground culture that encourages binge drinking without any oversight or supervision."
Be the first to comment on this story