The National Minimum Age Drinking Act of 1984 required that all states raise their minimum drinking age to 21, or risk a reduction in highway funds under the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Any state failing to comply faced a 10 percent decrease in its annual federal highway appointment, according to Drinkingage.procon.org. By 1988, all 50 states and DC were in compliance.
While the original motive for raising the drinking age was to combat drunk driving fatalities, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found unintended consequences of the legislation that have particularly benefited women over the past 30-plus years.
The study’s lead author Richard Grucza -- an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis -- whose research was published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that women who grew up when the legal drinking age was 21 -- not 18 -- had lower incidences of suicide and homicide.
The authors examined data on about 200,000 suicides and 130,000 homicides that took place in the United States between 1990 and 2004, hoping to gauge the longer-term impact of drinking age laws on homicide and suicide.
Grucza’s team found that “women who grew up being able to drink below the age of 21 had a 12 percent higher risk for suicide -- a trend that stretched far into adulthood -- than women who matured when the legal drinking age was set at 21 ... And women who had matured when the legal drinking age was below 21 had a 15 percent higher risk of dying from homicide,” according to a release on the study.
What Grucza notes as a particularly interesting finding is that age of drinking impacted women differently than men.
"As for the different findings concerning men and women, it's hard to say why that happened," Grucza said. "We can start by saying that it's well understood that suicide and homicide are very different phenomena for men and women, independent of drinking habits. And perhaps alcohol tips the dynamic. But at this point it's just speculation based on past literature. We don't have the specific data to ferret that out."
Grucza and his associates estimate that “upward of 600 suicides and 600 homicides have been prevented each year simply by having 21 as the nation's drinking age,” according to a Health Day article on the study.
A reduction in drunk driving fatalities and studies such as this one showing a decrease in suicides and homicides would seem to be reason enough to keep the legal drinking age no younger than 21. But some proponents exist and have loudly voiced their opposition in recent years.
What’s referred to as the Amethyst Initiative is an organization made up of U.S. college presidents and chancellors that launched a movement in July 2008 calling for reconsideration of the minimum age of 21 U.S. drinking age law.
According to Wikipedia’s article on Amethyst Initiative, their group’s main message is this: "Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students (and therefore lawmakers should) invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol."
So while both sides raise valid points about the legal drinking age in the United States, Grucza and his team argue that their latest findings are only one of many unintended consequences -- and benefits -- of having the drinking age at 21.
Sources:
Higher Legal Drinking Age May Mean Safer Lives for Women. Health Day. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=658968
Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age? ProCon.org. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
http://drinkingage.procon.org
Amethyst Initiative. Wikipedia. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst_Initiative
Bailey Mosier is a freelance journalist living in Orlando, Florida. She received a Masters of Journalism from Arizona State University, played D-I golf, has been editor of a Scottsdale-based golf magazine and currently contributes to GolfChannel.com. She aims to live an active, healthy lifestyle full of sunshine and smiles.
Reviewed November 16, 2011
by MIchele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith