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The Dangers Of The Drinking Age
Forbes ^ | Apr 15, 2009 | Jeffrey A. Miron and Elina Tetelbaum

Posted on 04/16/2009 2:05:18 PM PDT by zaphod3000

For the past 20 years, the U.S. has maintained a Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21 (MLDA21), with little public debate about the wisdom of this policy. Recently, however, more than 100 college and university presidents signed the Amethyst Initiative, a public statement calling for "an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age."

SNIP

Our research compares traffic fatality rates in states before and after they changed their MLDA from 18 to 21. In contrast to all earlier work, however, we examined separately the impact in states that adopted an MLDA21 on their own and those that were coerced by the FUDAA.

The results are striking. Virtually all the life-saving impact of the MLDA21 comes from the few early-adopting states, not from the larger number that resulted from federal pressure. Further, any life-saving effect in those states that first raised the drinking age was only temporary, occurring largely in the first year or two after switching to the MLDA21.

Our results thus challenge both the value of the MLDA21 and the value of coercive federalism. While we find limited evidence that the MLDA21 saves lives when states adopted it of their own volition, we find no evidence it saves lives when the federal government compels this policy.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: alcohol; drinking; drinkingage; neoprohibition; opinion
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To: Elpasser; Vaquero
It’s a joke that an 18-year old can sign up for lethal combat in Iraq, but has no right to order a beer

Change the minimum age of military service to 21. There, all fixed! (/kidding)

41 posted on 04/16/2009 3:23:22 PM PDT by T Minus Four (Ashes on the head are for mourning the dead; my God lives, Hallelujia!!)
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To: T Minus Four

The U.S. is the only country in the world with a 21 year old minimum drinking age.

Western Europe 16
Mexico 18
Canada 18 or 19 depending onthe province


42 posted on 04/16/2009 3:28:11 PM PDT by myuhaul
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To: CondorFlight

Again,I just wish people didn’t drink so damn much, Legal and illegal. Why encourage it?

Wish in one hand right?

In my life experience, I have seen nothing but problems because of drinking.
I’ve got no use for it. But of course I have to deal with all the problems because people do. Problems that are unncessary if people werent getting effed up on that stuff.
I hate what it does to people.


43 posted on 04/16/2009 3:34:38 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: Hulka
My proposal:

Military personnel may consume alcohol at any age, but cannot purchase for off-premises consumption unless 21 or over.

For everyone else the drinking age is 21.

44 posted on 04/16/2009 3:35:36 PM PDT by Max in Utah (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: zaphod3000

No other country has a 21 year drinking age. Most are 15-18 and quite a few don’t even have a drinking age.


45 posted on 04/16/2009 3:36:12 PM PDT by shuckmaster (An oak tree is an acorns way of making more acorns.)
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To: zaphod3000
My problem with this -- and it was a problem for me because I was under 21 when the drinking age was raised (and under 19 when it happened before that) -- is that their reasoning for raising the drinking age was driving accidents.

So why not raise the driving age instead.

For that matter, New York State makes State Identification cards that look just like Drivers License and are just as official.
Why shouldn't someone with such an ID, who is obviously NOT a driver, be allowed to drink at 18 as they can't cause any auto accidents except by walking out in front of a car?

46 posted on 04/16/2009 3:36:25 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith (The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weight-lifting sessions each week and...)
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To: Vaquero

I don’t think there should even be a “legal” drinking age but I’m ok with 18 if we have to have one.


47 posted on 04/16/2009 3:40:22 PM PDT by Twink
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To: zaphod3000

I almost guarantee that if you went up to anyone 19, and asked if they had drank, they would say yes. Even at a conservative college like mine, almost everyone would say yes. We even had rum cake at a retreat for a women’s prayer group. I hate drinking (I’m not 21 yet), is stuck doing it sometimes, (especially when you mistake some one saying cherry instead of sherry, and your 12 year-old brother wants to eat all the soup, after already having a alcoholic drink his aunt gave to him). And when I went to Italy, and roomed with girls all over the US (Chicago, Califonia) I was called Hannah Montana for the fact that I didn’t drink (and actually paid for the stuff I was using).
/sigh


48 posted on 04/16/2009 3:41:48 PM PDT by Toki (The cows go moo, the ducks go quack, and Toki slowly goes mad.)
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To: NinoFan

I wonder if that’s because of the legal drinking age.


49 posted on 04/16/2009 3:44:01 PM PDT by Twink
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To: PackerBoy

When I was a kid, drinking beer, wine, etc. was no big deal. We had homemade wine with every meal. It was during the time I was a teen, late 70s/early 80s that it became this “issue.”


50 posted on 04/16/2009 3:49:15 PM PDT by Twink
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To: zaphod3000
The Gubmint can set the drinking age at whatever they want, but it wont stop the partying. Kids have little respect for this law. Never have, never will.

It was easy for a teen to get booze 40 years ago, & I suspect it is even easier now.

This is much like the gun ban. To paraphrase: When booze is outlawed, only the drunks will have booze.

I do not condone teenage drinking, but the Gubmint wont stop it, no matter how many laws it passes. This is just more nanny state crap.

Hillary & Co. thinks “it takes a village” to raise a child, but it was the villagers who were selling us the booze, wine, & beer - at a substantial markup.

In 40 years nothing has changed but the laws, & they have changed nothing.

51 posted on 04/16/2009 4:16:36 PM PDT by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: Vaquero
If your old enough to get your @$$ shot off in Iraq, your old enough to have a cold beer, in my book. 18 should be the drinking age.

Fine, let 18's drink to their hearts content in Iraq.

52 posted on 04/16/2009 4:20:03 PM PDT by MilspecRob (Most people don't act stupid, they really are.)
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To: CondorFlight
Even a mother in New England who permitted a party at her house where beer was served, with close supervision (including no driving afterwards), found herself in trouble with the law because her guests were legally underage. (Whereas, if she had just let them party elsewhere with no supervision, she’d have been just fine as far as the law was concerned—no matter how much less safe that would have been for everyone else.)

This is another thing that just drives me CRAZY!

I was in the only age group in Texas that could legally drink at age 18. The next year, the legal age moved to 19. When I turned 21, guess, where the legal age went?

I would say.. the best age was: 19. This age, reduced the drinking in High School, but made it legal for most college students.

53 posted on 04/16/2009 4:27:44 PM PDT by SomeCallMeTim ( When you find yourself going through Hell, keep going!)
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To: oldpass

Studies from archival data of that sort are essentially free: some professor got a publication by doing the study at the behest of his or her university president, and as a result got a slightly higher raise than he or she would have gotten without the study, and that, and some paper and computer time was the entire cost of the study.


54 posted on 04/16/2009 4:31:28 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: Frogtacos

I think the military has changed the age to 21 which I disagree with- I had no problem with them being able to drink at 18. I know it is now 21 at Ft Bliss and believe it is Army wide or all services wide.


55 posted on 04/16/2009 4:39:39 PM PDT by Tammy8 (Please Support & pray for our Troops; they serve us every day. Veterans are heroes not terrorists!)
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To: myuhaul
The U.S. is the only country in the world with a 21 year old minimum drinking age.

You exaggerate

It's also 21 in Armenia and Palau

56 posted on 04/16/2009 5:15:02 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Obama water dog don't swim)
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To: Tanniker Smith; All
So why not raise the driving age instead.

Interesting comment about the driving age. This 2004 article from the Washington Post points out the European minimum ages for drinking are relatively low, but it is harder for teenagers to get a drivers' license.

[A] fundamental difference between U.S. and European approaches to drunk driving among young people: Americans have raised the drinking age to 21; Europeans keep it low but put faith in stiff rules and regulations.

While most European countries issue driver's licenses at age 18, the difficulty of passing the test, high insurance costs and wide use of trains and buses all mean that young people generally begin to drive much later than in the United States.

"They start drinking at 16, but they cannot drive until they are 18," said Florence Berteletti Kemp, a communications officer in Brussels for Eurocare, a private group that campaigns to reduce Europeans' alcohol consumption. "I think in the U.S., there is an expectation to have your own car. It's not that young people in Europe are more careful. It's that they haven't got the car."

. . . .most countries allow people to buy beer and wine at 16. In many places, such as France, drinking starts much earlier, with parents giving their children small amounts of wine at holiday celebrations. Switzerland allows drinking at age 14, and Poland and Portugal have no minimum drinking age.


57 posted on 04/16/2009 5:18:52 PM PDT by zaphod3000 (Free markets, free minds, free lives)
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To: Political Junkie Too

Why not let parents decide - both when their children can drive and whether or not they can drink?

Isn’t the question one of maturity and who better to judge than parents. No apologies to any statists.

Shouldn’t we represent the people who really believe in liberty, ie trusting you with your own life?

It would make a nice contrast to the party of control and manipulation.


58 posted on 04/16/2009 5:47:41 PM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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To: NinoFan
Consider a government education system that is more interesting in calibrating people than creating independent, mature adults. There is no reason a child of 12 cannot work, run a business or understand the world.

We hand them wonderful, bright-eyed five year olds and they return us sexed up, shallow, eighteen year old nihilists.

59 posted on 04/16/2009 5:54:42 PM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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To: Canticle_of_Deborah

I don’t know about the forbidden fruit angle.

It seems to me one of a double standard. Many children see adults behave in absurd ways - drinking, sexuality, cursing - and, yet despite their good behavior they are treated like children. Adult no longer means mature, but over 21. Why not call a spade a spade?

Maturity is a behavior not an age.


60 posted on 04/16/2009 5:59:03 PM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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