I’m researching for a debate for a class and my group’s stance is that the drinking age should be lowered to 18.
So I’m just wondering if any knows of any groups or individuals who argued for laws that would lower the drinking age and what exactly the arguments were (any and all links would be appreciated)
BTW I hate group assignments I always get stuck in group with fuck ups
Well, many countries have a drinking age of eighteen, some lower. You can legally buy alcohol in Australia at the age of eighteen. Perhaps you could use this as an argument?
They raised the drinking age from 19 to 21 less than 20 years ago. I am 39 and I was able to drink when I turned 19. A memorable night! I don’t remember the reasoning behind raising it, ( not that I cared since I was already old enough to drink ) but perhaps you should research it and you can try to dispute those arguments.
I had a similar experience to Kristi (being 39, and living in NY when the age changed)
Now, it turns out the age had been lowered just 14-15 years before:
AMA Minimum Legal Drinking Age.
Are there any groups right now lobbying for a lower age? Well, I’d support it (especially with a graduated driving age, which would remove some concern about underage drinking and driving [I think the cornerstone of the higher MDA in the US]), but not sure how vocal or popular any such group would be…
Legal age for buying alcohol in the U.K. is also 18. I phrase it that way because I think there might be some arcane legal bits that make it OK for parents to allow a younger teenager a glass of wine/beer - NOT sure, and kind of hurrying while borrowing someone else’s comp, but, certainly, to buy booze, whether in a shop licensed to sell alchohol for home comsumption, OR in a pub (bar) is 18 years.
I do. It wasn’t supposed to be so 18 year olds couldn’t drink. The story was that 18-year-old high school students would buy booze for 15 and 16 year olds, and we had to raise the drinking age to Won’t someone think of the children get alcohol out of the high schools. Now, of course, that has been forgotten, and we crack down on 19-year-old college students who drink, giving us the absurd situation that you are responsible enough to make life-or-death driving decisions at 16½, responsible enough to sign a contract involving thousands of dollars at 18, responsible enough to join the service and possibly die at 18, but too immature to decide to have a beer until you’re 21.
I just realized that I might have gotten a little too GDish for GQ. Sorry.
The drinking age was (still is?) 18 in New Orleans 8 years ago when I was there. Apparently they were changing back and forth often at the time because the bartender had to ask one of the regulars what the current drinking age was.
Bartender: hey buddy, what’s the age now? Still 18, or did they change it back.
Guy: Oh heck I don’t even know, they keep changin it every other day.
You may want to look into some of the debating that went on during that time down there. Not quite sure how you’d find it though.
As one who was there during the battle to lower the drinking age…
It started as a battle to lower the voting age to 18, because 18 year olds were being drafted.
Then it was an effort to lower the age for full adult rights (not just drinking) to 18 because 18 year olds could already vote and be drafted.
Then there was a drive to push the drinking back to 21 because of (I don’t have a cite for this) an increase in the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents.
In a nutshell, the argument is full adult rights vs. not being mature enough to handle alcohol.
Sure, lots of 18 and 19 year olds push for it seemingly every year in my home state of Wisconsin (specifically, Oshkosh - at least that’s always the place that makes the news). They organize, they get it brought up in state legislature, and it gets defeated. Then said 18 and 19 year olds riot.
I think it’s this last bit that really hurts their cause. It doesn’t do much to prove how mature and responsible they are, and severly undermines the maturity and responsbility they show by being able to get the issue discussed in state legislature at all. YMMV.
Snicks
This site might be useful to you.
Funny, drinking for 18 year olds was legal in NYS long before 1970. I turned 18 in 1970 and could drink (I am the youngest person ever to legally tend bar in New York State, since I was hired to tend bar at a party on my 18th birthday) and I don’t recall any change in the drinking age leading up to that.
IIRC, 18 was also the age in CT, MA, NJ, and VT in the 60s. Each state made its own decision on the issue.
There’s some evidence that the higher age now encourages binge drinking (which was pretty much unknown when I was 18 – if you could drink legally, there was no reason to drink as much as you could, since you could always get another beer the next day).
In any case, the higher drinking age is a direct result of the fact that 18-21 year olds don’t bother to vote. Since they don’t vote, politicians are free to pass laws and ignore their wishes.
Can you drink at a lower age (than 21) if you are an active memeber of the US Armed Services (Marines, Air Force etc…)?