WHY IS THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE 21 IN THE UNITED STATES?
Watch It! – Bet You Didn’t Know: Prohibition (2:45)
Watch It! – Prohibition in the United States: National Ban of Alcohol (4:56)
Watch It! – 30 Year Anniversary, National 21 MDAA: Has it Made a Difference? (2:57)
INTRODUCTION
Did you ever wonder why the legal drinking age is 21? Did you know that the United States minimum drinking age of 21 years
old is the highest in the world (except for a few states in India)? If you have ever talked to anyone who was born in the 1970s
or earlier, they might have told you that they could legally drink under the age of 21. This is true because each state is
responsible for setting its own minimum legal drinking age; not the federal government. States are responsible for setting their
own minimum drinking age laws based on the concept of federalism – i.e. those laws which are not prescribed to the federal
government are reserved for the states. But if each state sets its own minimum legal drinking age, why does every state set it
at 21 years of age?
The short answer to this question is because Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which essentially
said to the states:
If you (states) want the federal money you’re entitled to for your roads and transportation systems, then you
will raise your minimum drinking age to 21 years old.
Some states refused to comply with this request, but by 1988 every state eventually succumbed to the need for more money
from the federal government and set their minimum legal drinking age to 21. However, a more accurate answer requires a little
bit of knowledge about the history of U.S. drinking laws, understanding the concept of what an "unfunded federal mandate"
means, and a discussion on how ‘21’ years of age became the magic number.
THE PROHIBITION YEARS (1920-1933)
From the late 19th century into the early 20th century there was a lot of change occurring in America. Feminism, unionism,
socialism, and progressivism all gained national spotlight. In addition, a national movement promoting the prohibition of alcohol
began to emerge (also known as the "temperance movement"). "Prohibition" is generally defined as the prohibiting of
something. In the context of alcohol, "prohibition" refers to the legal prohibiting of the manufacture, sale, and consumption of
alcoholic beverages. Many religious and conservative leaders claimed that the alcohol industry was ruining the fabric of
American families and society. They wanted change, and fought to prohibit alcohol in all the states.
The states each had the power to regulate laws on alcohol within their own borders. So, the best way to get all the states to
prohibit alcohol was to try and pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. At first, prohibitionists were able to pass federal
acts that helped to curb or reduce alcohol use, like the Wartime Prohibition Act of 1918, the Wilson Original Packages Act, and
the Webb-Kenyon Act. However, many states still allowed alcohol to be made, sold, and consumed.
Then, on January 29, 1919, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and it went into effect in 1920. The
18th Amendment gave Congress the power to regulate alcohol instead of the states. Through the 18th Amendment, Congress
“prohibited” all people from drinking, regardless of age, and made it a crime to manufacture, sell, or distribute alcoholic
beverages. For the first time on a national level in American history, an adult could be prosecuted and put in jail for consuming
alcohol.
The federal government quickly found out that it had its hands full in trying to enforce the 18th Amendment. In other words,
many people were breaking the law in not abiding by the 18th Amendment. The institution of the "speakeasy" replaced the
saloon. A speakeasy was a club where alcohol was illegally sold and consumed. The Mafia also took part in running many
speakeasies. Estimates of the number of speakeasies throughout the United States during the years of prohibition ranged from
200,000 to 500,000.
Prohibition eventually failed because people did not follow the law of the 18th Amendment, and the federal government was
overwhelmed in trying to enforce it. On December 5, 1933, Congress officially repealed the 18th Amendment by passing the
21st Amendment. (The 21st Amendment is the only U.S. amendment that was ratified through state conventions, instead of
through state legislatures.) The 21st Amendment officially ended the years of prohibition in America, which lasted from 1920 to
1933.
The passing of the 21st Amendment gave each state the power once again to regulate alcohol within their borders. In other
words, the federal government gave the power back to the states to set their own laws on drinking. Some states chose to be
"wet states" (i.e. allowed people to legally drink) while other states chose to be "dry states" (i.e. didn’t allow people to legally
drink).
THE VIETNAM ERA
The Vietnam War lasted from 1959 to 1975, and U.S. involvement increased in the early 1960s. During the Vietnam Era there
was a movement to allow 18-year-olds to legally drink alcohol. Proponents of an 18-year-old minimum drinking age argued that
soldiers who were legally adults and were dying for their country were old enough to legally drink alcohol (many people today
still argue this should be the case).
Many states changed their own laws to allow 18 years old to legally drink alcohol during the Vietnam Era. Most military bases,
even those in states with 21 minimum drinking ages, would allow active military personnel, while on base, to consume alcoholic
beverages at age 18.
Some states allowed people from age 18 to under 21 to drink "three-two" alcoholic beverages. "Three-two" stood for the
percentage of alcohol in the beverage. For example, a "three-two" beer was 3.2% alcohol.
THE NATIONAL MINIMUM DRINKING AGE ACT OF 1984
By the end of the 1970s and the early part of the 1980s, the federal government once again became concerned about the
minimum legal drinking age within each state. The government knew that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution would likely
not work because of the past (e.g. 18th Amendment failed). So, the federal government came up with an even cleverer way to
raise the national minimum drinking age through the use of an "unfunded federal mandate."
President Ronald Reagan signed into effect the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA) in 1984. The NMDAA is an
example of an "unfunded federal mandate." A "federal mandate" is a federal law that orders the states to do (or not do)
something or face the possibility of being penalized in some other way. Federal mandates can also be either be "funded" or
"unfunded." A funded federal mandate gives the states money to assist them in carrying out the mandate. An unfunded federal
mandate does not give the states any money. In other words, the states have to enforce the unfunded federal mandate without
any additional money from the federal government.
Here’s how the unfunded federal mandate of NMDAA works. Under the NMDAA, the federal government ordered the states to
increase their minimum legal drinking age to 21 years old. States were free to say "no," but for any state that did so it would
lose approximately 10% of its federal funding for highway public transportation under another act called the Federal Aid
Highway Act. Therefore, the federal government mandated the states to pass laws increasing their minimum drinking age to 21
years old or face losing money for their highways. The NMDAA was also "unfunded" because the federal government did not
give the states any money to help in enforcing the new minimum drinking age law. A number of states initially said "no" to
NMDAA, but by 1988 every state passed a law raising its minimum drinking age to 21 in order to continue receiving all the
federal money they were entitled to under the Federal Aid Highway Act.
Unfunded federal mandates have generally been met with much hostility from the states, but they are constitutional in the eyes
of the law. This is because the federal government is allowed to "attach strings" to any law/mandate that is passes. In other
words, the federal government can say to the states:
You (states) can have this money, but only if you pass this law. Otherwise, we (the federal government) can
refuse to give you money and/or take money away from you in other programs.
THE MAGIC NUMBER ‘21’
So, why did the federal government decide on ‘21’ as the magic number for the minimum drinking age?
Prior to passing NMDAA of 1984, there were many studies conducted on the effects of alcohol on younger people. Several
studies determined that a youth’s brain is not fully developed until around age 21, and alcohol affects youth’s brains differently
than it does adults. In addition, many special interest groups promoted NMDAA. Perhaps the most influential special interest
group for NMDAA was Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). MADD claims that the higher minimum legal drinking age has
saved thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of lives.
That magic number ‘21’ has therefore officially been the minimum drinking age in every state since 1988, when Wyoming
became the last state to comply with NMDAA.
CONCLUSION
As previously mentioned, the United States has the highest legal drinking age in the world besides a few states in India. Most
countries allow a person to legally drink alcohol at the age of 18, including the countries of Spain, Russia, Mexico, Ireland,
England, and Australia. Some countries like Italy, Greece, Germany, and Portugal allow people to legally consume certain
alcoholic beverages at age 16. And some countries have no legal drinking age at all.
In the United States, the states are responsible for setting their own minimum drinking age. But every state has set their
minimum drinking age at 21 years old, in order to be in compliance with the unfunded federal mandate of the National Minimum
Drinking Age Act of 1984. It is highly unlikely the U.S. will ever go back to the years of prohibition, but there may come a time
when ‘21’ is no longer the magic number.
SHOULD THE DRINKING AGE BE LOWERED?
Watch It! – Should We Lower the Drinking Age? (4:21)
Our political system is a federal one in which power is shared between the states and the federal government. The
Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reserves all powers not delegated to the national government to the
states and to the people. Nonetheless, the federal government has been able to exercise power over matters that
traditionally have been under the control of state governments, such as the minimum age for drinking alcoholic
beverages. The federal government has been able to do so by its ability to give or withhold federal grants. The
provision of grants to the states by the federal government is known as fiscal federalism, and these grants give the
federal government considerable influence over state policies.
In the 1980s, for example, the national government wanted the states to raise the minimum drinking age to
twenty-one years. States that refused to do so were threatened with the loss of federal highway construction
funds. The threat worked - it was not long before all of the states had changed their minimum-drinking-age laws.
In the 1990s, Congress used the same threat to encourage the states to lower their blood-alcohol limits for drunk
driving to 0.08 percent by 2004. Again, states that failed to comply faced reductions in federal highway funds.
IT'S TIME TO END THIS CHARADE –
COLLEGE STUDENTS STILL DRINK
KEEP THE AGE-TWENTY-ONE REQUIREMENT
BECAUSE IT'S WORKING
Underage drinking did not disappear when the
minimum-drinking-age requirement was raised to
twenty-one years. Indeed, the problem got worse.
Millions of young people today are, in effect, criminals,
because they are breaking the law by drinking.
Moreover, the law encourages young people to binge in
secret in order to avoid apprehension and prosecution
by the local police. The minimum drinking age of
twenty-one years has not reduced drunk driving among
teenagers, because it is largely unenforceable.
Additionally, it has bred contempt for the law in general
among teenagers. That is why a group of 135 U.S.
college presidents and chancellors endorsed the
Amethyst Initiative, a movement calling for the
reconsideration of U.S. drinking-age laws. Prohibition did
not work in the 1920s, and prohibiting those under
twenty-one from drinking will not work in the twentyfirst century. Almost no other country has such a high
minimum drinking age. It is time to lower the drinking
age everywhere in the United States. Responsible
drinking can be taught through role modeling by parents
and through educational programs.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) leads the
opposition to lowering the drinking age. That group
contends that the Current drinking-age laws have
saved more than twenty thousand lives. The National
Transportation Safety Board, the American Medical
Association, and the Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety all agree. After all, young persons' brains are
not fully developed, so they are more susceptible to
alcohol. When the drinking age limit is twenty-one, it
helps to protect young people from being pressured
to drink. Teenagers who drink are a danger not only
to themselves but also to others - particularly when
driving. Young people away at college must deal with
enough new responsibilities. They don't need
drinking as yet another problem. Fatalities involving
eighteen-to twenty-year-old drivers have decreased
since the laws establishing the minimum drinking age
of twenty-one were enacted. These laws are working
as planned, so we should keep them.
WHERE DO YOU STAND?
1. Should the drinking age be lowered? Why?
2. Does a higher drinking age encourage binge drinking, as alcohol is now forbidden for young people under 21?
3. “One can join the military at the age of eighteen and die for this country, so it is absurd not to allow those
between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one to drink.” Analyze this statement.
Civics
Unit 1
Name___________________________
Date___________________ Per._____
RATIFICATION OF 21ST AMENDMENT ENDS PROHIBITION
http://www.history.com/topics/18th-and-21st-amendments
On Dec. 5, 1933, national Prohibition came to an end, as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the
Constitution. The amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, which had taken effect nearly 14 years earlier.
The New York Times noted that President Franklin Roosevelt made a “plea to the American people to employ their
regained liberty first of all for national manliness.” The president also said, “This return of individual freedom shall
not be accompanied by the repugnant conditions that obtained prior to the adoption of the Eighteenth
Amendment and those that have existed since its adoption.”
Prohibition was introduced after decades of campaigning by a nationwide temperance movement, which argued that alcohol
consumption caused poor health, hurt families, and increased crime and bad behavior. The 18th
Amendment, ratified in 1919 and put into effect in January 1920, banned the “manufacture,
sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.”
Many advocates of Prohibition believed that it would be a cure-all for society’s problems. The
well-known evangelist Rev. Billy Sunday proclaimed, “The slums will soon be a memory. We will
turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright
now, women will smile and children will laugh.”
Prohibition would have the opposite effect, however. It led to a rise in organized crime and the establishment of a large blackmarket for alcohol smuggling and trade, a practice known as bootlegging. Many Americans ignored Prohibition laws, drinking
alcohol at secret bars and clubs known as “speakeasies.” Government agencies were unable to halt the flow of alcohol, due to a
lack of funding and resources, and, in some cases, corruption. Prohibition cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars in
law enforcement and lost tax revenue from the sale of alcohol.
By the end of the 1920s, even many prominent Prohibition advocates realized that Prohibition had failed and advocated for its
repeal. Congress passed the 21st Amendment in February 1933. It was ratified by a series of state conventions rather than by
state legislatures, which have been used to ratify every other amendment, as Congress felt that many state legislators remained
beholden to pro-Prohibition interests.
Connect to Today:
The federal government currently bans the use and sale of marijuana, but there is a growing movement to legalize it. An
October 2015 Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans support the legalization of marijuana.
Here are states with legal recreational marijuana:
1. Alaska
3. Oregon
2. Colorado
4. Washington
Here are states with medical marijuana:
1. Alaska
9. Maine
2. Arizona
10. Maryland
3. California
11. Massachusetts
4. Colorado
12. Michigan
5. Connecticut
13. Minnesota
6. Delaware
14. Montana
7. Hawaii
15. Nevada
8. Illinois
16. New Hampshire
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
What similarities, if any, do you see between Prohibition and the federal ban on
marijuana? What are some differences? Given the increasing public support for
its legalization, do you think the ban on marijuana will be repealed in your
lifetime? Why or why not?