Spring Break
American Spirits: The Drinking Age Debate
Timothy Bleasdale
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Focus
I'm willing to bet almost anything that you've had an illegal drink or two in your life. Chances are good that most of the people sitting around you while you read this have as well and probably will this weekend, too. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), four out of every five college students drink and of these four, roughly half are underage. Despite statistics like these, the debate over the legal status of drinkers between the age of 18 and 21 has been relatively quiet since the mid-1980s.
In recent weeks, however, the debate over the national minimum drinking age has been making its way back into national news. On Monday, presidential hopeful Barack Obama made headlines by telling Connecticut Army veteran, Ernest Johnson, that lowering the drinking age would not be on his agenda as president. The movement to return the legal drinking age to 18 is gaining serious traction in a surprisingly large number of states, the most widely publicized of which is Vermont.
In The Green Mountain state, the state legislature has formed a task force to examine lowering the legal age back to 18. A group in Missouri is petitioning to have the issue placed on the ballot in November for citizens to decide. In Wisconsin and South Carolina lawmakers have suggested that active-duty military personnel younger than 21 be allowed to purchase alcohol, a proposal which was made in New Hampshire just last year. A petition is circulation in South Dakota that would allow people 19 years and older to buy beer no stronger than 3.2 ABV. And in Boulder, Colo., the chief of police, Mark Beckner, told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he believes raising the legal drinking age limit to 21 was "not a wise decision."
But who made the decision, wise or not? The story of the national minimum drinking age is a complicated one, involving constitutional amendments, battles over the rights of states, wars in Asia and hippies.
The most common misconception about the minimum drinking age is that it was set at 21 years of age by the 21st Amendment, which repealed prohibition. Actually, the amendment simply allotted all regulation of alcohol - including legal age of consumption - to the states. When the amendment was ratified in December of 1933, many states set the legal age at 21, but lowered the age for purchasing beer to 18.
In recent weeks, however, the debate over the national minimum drinking age has been making its way back into national news. On Monday, presidential hopeful Barack Obama made headlines by telling Connecticut Army veteran, Ernest Johnson, that lowering the drinking age would not be on his agenda as president. The movement to return the legal drinking age to 18 is gaining serious traction in a surprisingly large number of states, the most widely publicized of which is Vermont.
In The Green Mountain state, the state legislature has formed a task force to examine lowering the legal age back to 18. A group in Missouri is petitioning to have the issue placed on the ballot in November for citizens to decide. In Wisconsin and South Carolina lawmakers have suggested that active-duty military personnel younger than 21 be allowed to purchase alcohol, a proposal which was made in New Hampshire just last year. A petition is circulation in South Dakota that would allow people 19 years and older to buy beer no stronger than 3.2 ABV. And in Boulder, Colo., the chief of police, Mark Beckner, told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he believes raising the legal drinking age limit to 21 was "not a wise decision."
But who made the decision, wise or not? The story of the national minimum drinking age is a complicated one, involving constitutional amendments, battles over the rights of states, wars in Asia and hippies.
The most common misconception about the minimum drinking age is that it was set at 21 years of age by the 21st Amendment, which repealed prohibition. Actually, the amendment simply allotted all regulation of alcohol - including legal age of consumption - to the states. When the amendment was ratified in December of 1933, many states set the legal age at 21, but lowered the age for purchasing beer to 18.
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