they should be able to drink (Wechsler & Nelson, 2010). Over the next decade, drinking, alcohol sales, and the number of car accidents involving alcohol increased exponentially for young adults aged 18 to 20 years (Wechsler & Nelson, 2010).
In response to the “unintended health consequence” (Wechsler & Nelson, 2010, p. 986) of a lower drinking age, some states opted to restore the minimum legal drinking age (MDLA) back up to 21. In 1984, President Ronald Regan, in an effort to make the drinking age uniform across the United States, enacted a law setting the minimum legal drinking age of 21 for all states in the country. The President took away individual states’ options to oppose the age law when he mandated that, to receive federal highway funding, states were required to set the MLDA to 21 years. Not surprisingly, by 1988, all states in the country had minimum drinking age laws set at 21. And so the controversy began as to whether a minimum drinking age of 21 was the answer to the …show more content…
Over the past 30+ years since the 1984 implementation of the MLDA-21, two schools of thought have separated the academic world and educational communities. There are the proponents of a 21-year-old drinking age and there are those that think that, not only is the law setting the minimum drinking age of 21 unhelpful, but that it is a factor in the escalation of college drinking. The most vocal (and, perhaps respected) of these nay-sayers are the now 136- strong college and university presidents who formed the Amethyst Initiative, in 2008, to have a public conversation about lowering the minimum drinking age. Their motto, “Twenty-one is not working” (Amethyst Initiative, 2008) reflects their disgruntled
In response to the “unintended health consequence” (Wechsler & Nelson, 2010, p. 986) of a lower drinking age, some states opted to restore the minimum legal drinking age (MDLA) back up to 21. In 1984, President Ronald Regan, in an effort to make the drinking age uniform across the United States, enacted a law setting the minimum legal drinking age of 21 for all states in the country. The President took away individual states’ options to oppose the age law when he mandated that, to receive federal highway funding, states were required to set the MLDA to 21 years. Not surprisingly, by 1988, all states in the country had minimum drinking age laws set at 21. And so the controversy began as to whether a minimum drinking age of 21 was the answer to the …show more content…
Over the past 30+ years since the 1984 implementation of the MLDA-21, two schools of thought have separated the academic world and educational communities. There are the proponents of a 21-year-old drinking age and there are those that think that, not only is the law setting the minimum drinking age of 21 unhelpful, but that it is a factor in the escalation of college drinking. The most vocal (and, perhaps respected) of these nay-sayers are the now 136- strong college and university presidents who formed the Amethyst Initiative, in 2008, to have a public conversation about lowering the minimum drinking age. Their motto, “Twenty-one is not working” (Amethyst Initiative, 2008) reflects their disgruntled