Drinking Age

[+ Kufrol]

When I first started teaching high school English, the drinking age was 18. Many 16 year old students who looked 18 and had fake IDs would come to class inebriated. It became a real problem, so returning the drinking age to 21 helped, although kids would still come to class tipsy or drunk (just not as many). From what I understand, states still have the ability to set the age limits for alcohol consumption, but they lose federal funding to highways and Interstates if they set the limit under 21.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Kufrol

[Rod Hagen]

This is where what I think is right (drinking age at 18) and what I want to see (drinking age at 21) diverge.

[Rudynate]

I remember that being a thing when I worked in restaurants in college. I just bussed tables, I didn't serve, but I remember talking with the bartenders about cases at the time where the bartender had been held responsible if a customer overdrank. In retrospect, it seems similar to those lawsuits where people sued McDonalds for their weight problems.

 

It isn't just businesses. If someone gets drunk while a guest in your home, you can be held responsible. I think it's a reasonable policy. What it means is that it isn't OK to keep giving someone who is obviously inebriated more to drink and then allowing them to go out and do things like operating a motor vehicle. It isn't too much to ask that the providers of alcoholic beverages exercise judgment and moderation in the interest of public safety.

[+ Avalon]

I had a friend who had an inground swimming pool. There was a balcony off the living room overlooking it. He said when he gave parties he would put up a screen around the balcony in case someone got drunk and wanted to dive off the balcony into the pool.

[instudiocity]

IIRC the drinking age was lowered to 18 back in 1972. I think by 1987 all 50 states changed it back to 21.

~Boomer~

You do. And the reason the drinking age was raised to 21? Federal Highway funding was tied to whether the states had a drinking age of 21 or 18. To get the most money, states had to raise their drinking age back to 21.

"The repeal of prohibition by the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933 allowed each state to set its own alcohol consumption laws. At that time, most states established the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) for alcohol at 21 years of age. Following the July 1, 1971 passage of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18 years of age, 30 US states lowered their MLDA to 18, 19, or 20; by 1982, only 14 states still had an MLDA of 21.

 

"The enactment of the

National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984

prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21

or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. By 1988, all 50 states had raised their MLDA to 21.

 

I think it was MADD - Mother's Against Drunk Driving lobbying the Congress to raise the drinking age that got the ball rolling.

 

https://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004484

[+ deej]

The laws regarding sales and service of alcohol could be really weird. I grew up in New York State. When I was a kid, restaurants couldn't serve alcohol until 1PM on Sunday. If you had been drinking at the bar at a restaurant and you moved to a table, it was against the law for you to carry your own drink, a restaurant employee had to carry it for you. When I lived in Colorado, bars had to close at 12pm on Sunday. The only alcoholic beverage stores could sell on Sunday was 3.2 beer. 18 year olds could drink 3.2 beer, but nothing else. There were actually bars that sold only soft drinks and 3.2 to cater to the 18-21 crowd. The laws were truly wacky.

 

They're wacky everywhere. Here, you can buy adult beverages at the grocery stores but not from midnight Saturday through noon on Sunday, and your cashier has to be old enough to buy the stuff or s/he can't even scan it at the register. They have to call an older cashier over to drag your purchase across the scanner if they're under age.

 

They get even more wacky when you tack on local ordinances. Our sister city (literally across the street) was completely dry on Sundays. Until a major sports event came to campus every Sunday one fall. Then the fine, pious residents decided they wanted some of that tailgate money and it was no longer dry on Sunday.

[+ pdxleo]

There's a move afoot here in the state of Oregon to restrict tobacco sales to only 21 and over, whaddya think about that? Both are harmful, both need to have controls...........

[+ Avalon]

There's a move afoot here in the state of Oregon to restrict tobacco sales to only 21 and over, whaddya think about that? Both are harmful, both need to have controls...........

 

California did that earlier this year.

[BabyBoomer]

There's a move afoot here in the state of Oregon to restrict tobacco sales to only 21 and over, whaddya think about that? Both are harmful, both need to have controls...........

 

California did that earlier this year.

 

It's also 21 in Hawaii & soon to be 21 in New Jersey. I'm sure other states will follow.

 

~Boomer~

[samhexum]