Is this a good time for a beer?

Photo by jenny downing

In the United States you can drive, buy a house, go to war, mary and divorce before you may even legally hold a beer. The federal government mandates a national minimum drinking age utilizing a threat (through two layers of legislation): withholding freeway funds from the states. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act mandates the minimum drinking age of 21; the Federal Aid Highway Act authorizes the feds to withhold freeway funds from states that do not legislate and enforce the 21 year-old age limit.

The result? The states have all capitulated. Some, such as Florida, in protest. Florida’s minimum drinking age law provides that “in the event that a federal court of last resort determines that it is unconstitutional for the Federal Government to withhold transportation funds from the state because the legal age of the sale, consumption, or possession of alcoholic beverages is under 21 years of age ... it is the intent of the Legislature that [the age restrictions revert back to 18 years of age].”

Each state deals with the required minimum drinking age differently. Some states make possession, consumption, purchase, and furnishing alcoholic beverages to under-aged persons illegal. Some states prohibit possession, purchase, and furnishing alcohol to under-aged persons, but not consumption. Others provide for family exceptions to the prohibitions making it legal to possess and consume alcohol around one’s parents or guardians. And, still others have family and location (in the home) exceptions to the prohibitions. Click here for a good state-by-state breakdown.

Today there are new cries for change. Two South Carolina magistrates recently ruled that preventing 18 to 20 year-olds from drinking or possessing alcohol is unconstitutional in South Carolina. Last week, a doctor who served on the commission advocating the minimum drinking age of 21, admitted that it is arbitrary and has not worked.

Perhaps, in the years to come we will see 18 year-olds in possession of all their adult rights.