The current legal drinking age in America is 21, as opposed to the
original American drinking age of 18 as of 1984. So why was the legal drinking age
changed? The idea that a person was not
a real adult until 21 dates back hundreds of years to old English law, where
that was the age where a person could vote, become a master of a trade, become
a knight, and of course drink. This
linking of voting and other rights with drinking age carried over into American
culture as well. Prior to World War II, the voting and draft age was 21, as
well as drinking age. But when WWII
rolled around, Franklin Roosevelt changed the draft age to 18 to up the number
of young men eligible for the draft.
This policy held until the Vietnam War when people became upset that a young
man that could be drafted to fight for their country couldn’t even vote, so the
voting age was changed to 18 to line up with the draft age, and along with it
the drinking age.
So why was
the legal age changed back to 21? The
simple answer was that the number of drunken driving deaths increased
dramatically among 18-20 year olds. Due to this, President Reagan signed the
aforementioned National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. In the years following, there was a 62%
decrease in drunken driving accidents among this age group. The arguments for the 21 year old drinking
age have only gotten stronger with new research revealing that the brain is not
done fully developing until the age of 25, and that alcohol use can hinder
these final stages of development.
So the final question is how does Americas America
should decrease the drinking age again because other countries have low
drinking ages, especially in Africa in Europe . But in fact America America shares the 21 year old drinking age with
Sri Lanka , Iraq , Oman ,
Mongolia , Samoa ,
and several others. Also, in many
countries in the Middle East and Africa it is
illegal to drink at any age. These
include Afghanistan , Pakistan , Libya ,
Kuwait
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