Some materials have also been used here in: Engs, Ruth C. “Should the drinking age be lowered to 18 or 19.” In Karen Scrivo, “Drinking on Campus,” CQ Researcher 8 (March 20, 1998): 257. But McCardell doesn`t give up. He believes legal limits on alcohol consumption should be set by the states, not the federal government. However, people cannot legally drink alcoholic beverages until the age of 21. It is high time for the United States to change this retrograde thinking. Once you turn 18, you are legally an adult. With this freedom comes many responsibilities. They can enter into legal contracts, be tried as adults and sent to an adult prison, and raise or adopt children. Eighteen-year-olds are employed in a number of professions where other people`s lives are at stake, such as paramedics or firefighters. And, of course, they take on one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: active military service. An opposite point is that alcohol consumption by 18- to 20-year-olds leaves them in dangerous environments such as bars and clubs. However, it happens anyway, as a large majority of underage drinkers have false IDs.

Dr. Berman, president of Manhattanville College, who is part of a group seeking to lower the MLDA, said his college uses “good judgment and reason to apply the law.” But students easily use fake ID to be served in off-campus bars (Stovell et al. 3). The repeal of alcohol prohibition by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933, allowed each state to establish its own laws on alcohol consumption. At that time, most states established the MLDA for alcohol at age 21, although two states established an MLDA of 21 for men and 18 for women: Illinois (1933-1961) and Oklahoma (1933-1976). The 1976 case of Craig v. the U.S. Supreme Court Boren ruled 7-2 that this age difference violated the equality clause of the 14th Amendment. After the passage of the 26th Amendment on July 1, 1971, which lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18, 30 U.S. states lowered their MLDA to 18, 19, or 20; In 1982, only 14 states had an MLDA of 21 After Congress lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971, many states followed suit by lowering decades-old barriers to alcohol consumption.

The reasoning was something like this: If young Americans could be trusted to vote, sit on a jury and fight in Vietnam, why couldn`t they order beer? Unfortunately, Danny Santulli is not the only case resulting from irresponsible off-campus consumption at the university. Across the United States, many students die or put themselves in dangerous situations because they have consumed excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. This is called excessive alcohol consumption. Binge drinking has been defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as “five or more drinks/four or more for men/women in a time frame that produces blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of approximately 0.08 g/dl.” (Creswell et al., 1472). Excessive alcohol consumption in college may be due to having a limited amount of time to consume the alcohol they have been given (also known as a party). Alcohol is also not allowed in dormitories, so everything must be consumed at the party. The higher drinking age does not deter teens and students from drinking, but rather forces them off campus in unsafe drinking environments because they don`t want to be caught drinking illegally. Just like most illegal things, alcohol makes it cool and rebellious to give alcohol contraband status, which is what teens are looking for. In 1992, after the MLDA was increased to 21, researchers found that more students drank to get drunk than students a decade earlier (M. Smith and M.D. Smith 1999). Richard Berman, president of Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, is one of 129 university presidents who have formed a group to advocate for lowering the MLDA to 18.

“We know that alcohol can be wonderful and can be dangerous or deadly,” he said. “The real question is: How do you help promote responsible drinking for students who drink?” (Stovell et al. 3). In some ways, it`s understandable that colleges don`t have the most lenient policies when it comes to underage alcohol. Colleges can and have been held responsible for alcohol-related student injuries. A recent study in New Zealand that lowered the drinking age from 20 to 18 in 1999 found that drivers aged 18 or 19 are now at higher risk of being involved in alcohol-related crashes that cause death or injury. A 2009 study by the National Institute of Health found that more than 1,800 students died from alcohol-related causes in 2005. In 2019, the number remained above 1,500. In addition, one in eight students reported injuries as a result of alcohol consumption and 1 in 20 students reported injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. Research also shows that less than three percent of the most drunk college students sought help for their binge drinking. Instead, he argues, colleges should have the opportunity to educate students on how to drink responsibly, within and outside campus boundaries.

For every life that is supposed to save the age of alcohol consumption, it disturbs or ruins a hundred others. Here are some of the different groups of people who are subject to harmful penalties under underage drinking laws: However, the 21-year-old limit may be less effective in curbing excessive drinking on college campuses. An Indiana University study of students at 56 colleges found that immediately after the national drinking age of 21, far more underage students drank than adults. The history of the legal drinking age is long and complicated. All states adopted a legal drinking age (MLDA) after prohibition ended in the United States in 1933 (Toomey et al.