The states all raised 'em again.
I remember this distinctly: I turned 18 just a couple of years after lowering the age became the "in thing," and though I don't drink I had plenty of friends who did, and two were killed in drinking-related traffic accidents.
LOL!! You are so melodramatic.
The maturity level would increase.
What's a little hyperbole between friends, eh?
Already tried it where? The drinking ages have gone up but I never heard of them going back down again.
The drinking age of 21 has been a complete disaster for all the reasons cited above. Under 21 drinking has been driven underground, forcing young adults to drink away from responsible adult supervision, where they often get into more trouble. The "forbidden fruit" syndrome encourages young adults to drink more than they normally would had they legally had access to it, because they do not know when they might have access to it again and thus want to take full advantage of the current situation.
This age 21 madness took hold in the early 1980s when I was serving in the Marine Corps. The military decided to keep the beer flowing in the enlisted clubs regardless of age, because otherwise, servicemen might go out in town and get into trouble. It was a smart move and many lives (not to mention careers) were undoubtably saved. When young people are drinking among elders, they have pressure to drink more responsibly because they don't want to be perceived as lushes or losers by people who they respect. Get a bunch of 18-19-20-year-olds together with a keg of beer and no elders around - which is what happens when you make it illegal for elders to be around - and you have the ingredients for disaster.
People do not magically become responsible drinkers at the arbitrary age of 21. It takes most people a few years to learn their limits with respect to alcohol. It is so important to have responsible adults around during these years. You don't simply hand your kid the keys to the car when he turns old enough to drive. You spend a lot of time with him first, ensuring that he or she is comfortable behind the wheel. So it should be with drinking as well.
The states all raised 'em again.
Why did the states raise the drinking age Illboy? Why are you such a dunderhead statist?
Lower the drinking age to 18, raise the driving age to 21!
Most of the states changed to 21 because of threats from the federal government.
The reason the states raised the drinking age was due to federal coersion. The feds simply said to raise the age or lose federal highway funding, which is nothing more than our tax dollars being returned to us after the feds take their cut. They also pulled the same crap with helmet laws, but our legisature actually had the balls to tell them to go pound sand. It cost us a few bucks, but I'm one of a small group of Americans who can still ride legally with the wind whipping through my hair.
Sorry, 18 year olds are adults. They can drink if they want.
I'm for making everything age 17 -- driving, drinking, and legal adult age. To help prevent the high fatalities on the highways, I'm in favor of mandatory jail time and drivers license revocations for anyone driving above the .1 limit.
The states raised the age when the federal government blackmailed them with free "gobernment" money. They were going to cut off the free goberment money if the states didn't raise the age.