Should the Drinking Age of 21 Really Be Lowered?

by Anna Matlby

Terry Doyle
Terry Doyle

You've probably heard the argument that the U.S. drinking age should be lowered to 18 (because it is in lots of other countries, because a higher age minimum forces younger drinkers to use alcohol in unsafe situations, etc.) Heck, some of us probably made that argument when we were 18. But according to a new research review, the drinking age should stay exactly where it is.

Researchers at Boston University examined research on minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) released since 2006 and found that science strongly backs keeping the drinking age past the teen years.

"The research literature overwhelmingly shows the benefits of the current law in saving lives and preventing serious injuries," study author William DeJong, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, told SELF. "Advocates for lowering the drinking age are misguided in their critique of the research literature. They pick apart individual studies, or inappropriately dismiss their relevance, but in so doing they miss the big picture."

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But what about all the under-21ers who drink anyway?

"It's true that the age-21 law is widely disobeyed, but the law does deter many young people from drinking until they reach that age, and many of those who choose to drink are doing so less frequently, and with less intensity, than they would absent that law," DeJong says. "And they are taking other steps to avoid coming to the attention of authorities, such as not driving after drinking."

One concrete piece of evidence supporting an age-21 MLDA, DeJong says: traffic fatality rates. The article notes that according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the age-21 MLDA saves up to 900 lives each year.

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"While alcohol-related traffic fatalities have gone down for all age groups, the sharpest decline has been among those younger than 21, a change that began in the mid-'80s when all 50 states again had an age-21 law," he says.

(That change occurred when President Reagan signed a law in 1984 to deter states from allowing people under 21 years to buy booze by reducing the federal funds uncooperative states could receive to build and repair highways.)

No matter how old you are -- or whether you're drinking legally or not -- we beg you to drink responsibly (have no more than one drink per hour) and never drink and drive.

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