JSA Summer School Congressional Workshop
Topic # 23
Lower the legal minimum drinking age to 18?
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Overview
Know your facts: Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. Although the Act
did not require a minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21, it effectively mandated it by stipulating that
some federal transportation funds would be withheld from states that failed to make 21 their minimum
age for purchasing and publicly possessing alcohol. Since 1984, all states that had previously lowered
their MLDA have all raised their MLDA back to 21. Questions to ponder: If underage drinkers are able
to surreptitiously purchase alcohol now, will the same happen with middle-teens if the legal age were to
become 18? How will this affect college campuses where every student is potentially 18 years old? Are
highway fatalities directly associated to the MLDA or is the prevalence insignificant? Why is there no
apparent problem in Europe where there is basically no MLDA or a much lower MLDA? Why is 18 considered an adult in other matters of the law but not for MLDA? Have you checked out MADD’s stance?
Background references
•http://drinkingage.procon.org/#background
• http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/LegalDrinkingAge.html#.U3ZNmS944u4
• http://drinkingage.procon.org/
• http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002591
• http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/alcohol-damage-death-WHO/2014/05/12/id/570813/
• http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=1610
• http://debatewise.org/debates/269-the-usa-legal-drinking-age-should-be-lowered-to-18-from-21/
• http://healthresearchfunding.org/pros-cons-lowering-drinking-age/
Use the following sites to help you form arguments and provide you with supporting evidence:
Citations supporting the affirmative
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-tracy/national-drinking-age-doing-more-harm_b_4629417.html
• http://time.com/72546/drinking-age-alcohol-repeal/
• http://www.cognac.com/15-reasons-why-drinking-age-should-be-18/
• http://www.thenation.com/blog/democrats-18-year-olds-can-fight-not-drink
• http://www.dailyranger.com/story.php?story_id=10826&headline=Lower-legal-drinking-age-to-18
• http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-debate-on-lowering-the-drinking-age/
• http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/opinion/cohan-underage-drinking-duke/
Citations supporting the negative
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1508754/pdf/amjph00009-0061.pdf
• http://www.bu.edu/today/2014/pov-legal-drinking-age-of-21-works-deal-with-it/
• http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2012060800&type=hitlist&num=0
• http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/
• https://hotair.com/archives/2014/04/24/should-the-gop-push-to-lower-the-drinking-age-to-18/
• http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/26021/0000092.pdf?sequence=1
• http://www.jsad.com/jsad/article/
Effects_of_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Laws_Review_and_Analyses_of_the_Literature/1478.html