Have you ever had an alcoholic beverage before you were the legal age of 21? Well if you did you broke the law. If you were in a different country like Canada or Europe the minimum drinking age is a lot lower. The United States tried before to get rid of drinking all together when they ratified the eighteenth amendment of the Constitution which banned the manufacturing, transporting and selling of alcoholic beverages. The Amendment went into effect one year after it was ratified on January 16, 1919. It was not until December 5, 1933 when Congress ratified the twenty-first amendment which repealed the eighteenth amendment that banned alcohol. The drinking age was then set at 18 for many years until every state changed it to 21 in hopes of saving lives from drunk driving. I believe that the drinking age should be lowered back down to 18.

The Prohibition Party has been trying to outlaw alcohol since the beginning of the party’s existence in 1869. They were successfully able get an amendment to the Constitution which did not last too long until another amendment was added to repeal that one. That amendment did not last because it created a whole new set of criminals that were producing their own alcohol called moonshine. After the prohibition amendment the states decided the legal drinking age. The Prohibitionist were still at work, trying to get rid of alcohol, and were able to get Congress to pass the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. This required every state to raised it minimum drinking age to 21 within 2 years or they would lose Federal-aid for highways.