National Drinking Age: Lower or Keep the Same .
In basically every college campus across the United States, and also in most high schools, parents and administrators have been dealing with a huge problem of underage drinking. Many feel that it is just too difficult to control and regulate the sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages to those under the national drinking age of 21 years old. It could possibly be only a problem of lack of enforcement and be solved with increased regulation. But this seems to be an obvious answer and many are beginning to feel that the reason why the enforcement of underage drinking is so lax could be because having a national drinking age of 21 years old is just too high. Before 1984, states individually decided how to regulate the sale liquor, but then a push by the federal government and by MADD, Mother's Against Drunk Driving, to have a national higher drinking age created the now instilled policy(Conant 1). There is much data proving and disproving the effectiveness of the new 21-year-old drinking age, but a new policy on a state regulated drinking age should be considered.
There has been much controversy over the increased national drinking age of 21 years old mainly because it is relatively new, only to have been imposed in 1984. With increased concern over teenage drunk driving accidents and underage binge drinking, many are looking to find ways to solve these problems. Some believe that the cause of a lot of these problems with underage drinking is the fact that the drinking age is just too high. Sue Bauman, Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, agrees, "the current drinking age is illogical, unfair and counterproductive in combating downtown alcohol problems"(Conant 1). Mayor Bauman and Chancellor Wiley from the University of Wisconsin point out that their biggest challenge to reducing campus binge drinking is the 21-year-old drinking age.
