NATIONAL MINIMUM DRINKING AGE ACT

The 'National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984' (Title 23 U.S.C. §158) was passed on July 17 1984 by the United States Congress as a mechanism whereby all states would become thereafter required to legislate and enforce the age of 21 years as a minimum age for purchasing or public possession of alcoholic beverages. Under the Federal Aid Highway Act, a state not enforcing the minimum age would be subjected to a ten percent decrease in its annual federal highway apportionment.
While this act did not outlaw the consumption of alcoholic beverages by those under 21 years of age, some states extended its provisions into an outright ban. However, most states still permit "underage" consumption of alcohol in some circumstances. In some states, no restriction on private consumption is made, while in others, consumption is only allowed in specific locations, in the presence of consenting and supervising family members, and/or during religious occasions.
Pressure from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was attributed with passage of the bill.

Contents

Opposition

Constitutional challenge

External links

References

Opposition

The Conservative Party of New York opposed the passage of the law in 1984, but according to ''The New York Post'' no longer considers the effort to bring back drinking by those under 21 worthwhile. In 2001, according to the same article, New York State Assembly member Felix Ortiz introduced a bill that would lower the drinking age to 18. He cited unfairness and difficulty with enforcement as his motivations.
Former congressman Scott Klug (R-WI) has unsuccessfully attempted to revoke the act and leave regulation of drinking age back to individual states.^[1]
In 2004, the president of Vermont's Middlebury College, John McCardell, Jr. wrote in ''The New York Times'' that "the 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law" that has made the college drinking problem far worse. [1] Some scholars[2] and others [3] agree. In 2007, John M. McCardell, Jr. founded the non-profit organization, Choose Responsibility [4] to promote informed public debate and support a fresh approach to the problem of reckless and excessive drinking, especially by young people.
The United States is one of the few countries in the world with such a high drinking age.[5] Other countries with similarly restrictive laws include the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain. Many people also disagree with the law for other reasons, a common one is that since the legal age to become an adult is 18, the government shouldn't control what people consume after that age. Finally, opponents of this law argue that threatening states with less highway funds for ''not'' enforcing the 21 age limit is a form of blackmail.

Constitutional challenge

The state government of South Dakota challenged the national drinking age and sued then-Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole in the case ''South Dakota v. Dole''. However, in the majority opinion authored by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the national drinking age was upheld.

External links

★ MLDA-21 - dates enacted by state - NHTSA

References

1. Licensed to Drink Ed Carson


★ http://epw.senate.gov/title23.pdf Title 23 of the United States Code, Highways. (PDF file)

★ http://www.youthrights.org/legana.shtml Legislative Analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act

★ The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984

★ Lovett, Kenneth. "LET KIDS START DRINKING AT 18: BROOKLYN POL." ''The New York Post'', May 1, 2002.