Lowering the Drinking Age?

[lifesaver]

Originally posted by ROWDYsister
Sorry to inundate you with statistics, but with a topic like this, facts are important...

BTW, it wasn't stated within this document, but I'm guessing 1982 is the year they raised the drinking age? Sounds like it.

Percentage of College Freshmen Who Drink Beer Frequently or Occasionally
Survey results indicate that the percentage of college freshmen who report drinking beer frequently or occasionally is 34 percent lower in 2000 than in 1982.
Source: The American Freshman Survey, sponsored by UCLA and the American Council on Education and conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies

Total Fatalities in Drunk-Driving Crashes
The number of people killed in drunk-driving crashes has declined 31 percent since 1990 and 41 percent since 1982.
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2000.

Total Fatalities in Teen Drunk-Driving Crashes
The number of people killed in crashes involving drunk teenage drivers (ages 16-20) decreased 64 percent from 1982-1999.
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2000.http://www.nbwa.org/advocates/statistics.html

Good statistics, but the drinking age 21+ thing happened in 86/87 I believe and was implemented over the next 2 -3 years, because the way our constitution is written, the Fed Govmt cant pass those laws, it has to be done by the states, but the feds controll the purse strings for things like highway dollars. Ya want your $$? Lower the drinking age... Or so they say. It took a few years for state legislatures to write the laws. Some states, like LA are still batteling the issue.

SOOO, its a bit erroneous to use the '82 start date for comparison of stats. Since the fed age thing happened in 86 - ya cant use the above stats to dircetly prove your claims.

ALSO - the stats above are UNDER the curreent system, so ya gotta expect a slight raise in problems until the persona of the culture changes. The problem is the rules, NOT the culture. Change the rules, the culture will change. its simple as that.