Essay - The United States, Along with Only A Handful of Other...

The United States, along with only a handful of other countries, enforces the world's highest minimum drinking age: 21. This conservative constraint occurred fairly recently: the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 effectively blackmailed all states into adopting a standard drinking age. By 1987, ***** fifty states established ***** federal standard because to not do so would entail losing highway funding. This political blackmail was necessary, for this is a *****' rights issue. Until the Reagan years, ***** drinking age ***** determined on a state-by-state basis and ranged from 18 ***** 21. However, with pressure ***** special interest groups like M*****s Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a dangerous precedent was established to usurp states' rights. The motives behind the 1984 bill were admirable: raising the drinking age was expected to lower the incident ***** traffic fatalities and discourage irresponsible **********. But bloated statistics and media hype swayed public interest and brainwashed Americans in***** believing that 21 is a m*****gical number, even though 18 is the age of majority and there is scant data to suggest that a higher legal drinking ***** reduces alcohol-related risks. In fact, reductions in au***** fatalities since 1987 can be attributed to *****ors unrelated ***** age, and raising the drinking ***** may be increasing problems that affect the entire population and not just youth. Alcohol abuse and binge ***** are on the rise among those too young to legally purchase *****ir beer. Instead of encouraging responsible behavior around alcohol, the federal insistence on an artificially high drinking age causes more problems th***** it solves. Controlling *****e ***** drinking ***** should ideally be a ***** *****; education and cultural consciousness change will positively ***** the manner in which young people consume mind-altering beverages.

***** United States seems alone in its over protectiveness ***** its *****. Many nations ***** ***** maintain any minimum age limit for ***** or consumption of alcoholic *****, while in many countries the m*****imum ***** ***** is between 14 and 19. Purchasing alcohol ***** drinking alcohol are treated differently in several ***** where it is legal for minors ***** drink under adult supervision but not to purchase drinks in a bar. Alcohol holds a less fe*****rsome pos*****ion in some cultures, especially ***** Europe where children are frequently given sips of beer or wine with meals. Mediterranean countries have such an ingrained sense of the n*****mality of ***** that teenagers drinking beer or wine seems as natural as listening ***** pop music. As a result, binge drinking to ***** extent that it is practiced on American ***** school and college campuses is less common in liberal European countries. One facet of the puritanical problem in the ***** States is the emphasis on legislation ***** the ign*****ance of personal responsibility. Parents who teach *****ir children to enjoy alcohol in moderation can influence whether their *****fspring will drink responsibly or get ***** the wheel after a party. Laws do not deter people from practicing a behavior, and teenagers know how to drink illegally. Illegal ***** is problematic