5. Age 21 Drinking Laws

(a)    All states, territories and the Department of Defense should adopt 21 years as the minimum legal age for the purchase or public possession of all alcoholic beverages.

(b)    Federal legislation should continue to provide significant fiscal incentives for each state to enact and/or maintain a law establishing 21 years as the minimum legal age of purchase.

The magnitude of the problem of "under 21" drinking and driving was repeatedly raised throughout the Advisory Commission Field Hearings.102 The statistics demonstrate that approximately 3,588 teenagers between the ages of 16 to 19 are killed in alcohol-related accidents each year,103 making these accidents the leading cause of death for that age group.104 Put another way, nearly half of all deaths of 16-19 year olds are due to motor vehicle accidents.105 Moreover, injuries are also disproportionally represented from teenage alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents.106

On July 17, 1984, President Reagan signed Public Law 98-363 which calls upon those states that do not have a minimum legal drinking age of 21 to enact such legislation by September, 1986. Failure to enact such legislation would result in a withholding of five percent of federal highway construction funds in fiscal 1987 and ten percent in fiscal 1988. Only 23 jurisdictions, less than half of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have enacted 21 minimum drinking age laws.107 Of these, four enacted such provisions only as recently as last year.lO8 Since the number has increased from 15 in 1981 to 23, the trend is towards raising the minimum drinking age,109 thus reversing the trend between 1970 and 1975 when 29 states lowered their minimum drinking ages.110

In addition to the issue of uniform state laws, the Advisory Commission also noted concern about the under 21 drinking age among military personnel subject to the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense. A 1971 Congressional study by the Comptroller General reported the high incidence of alcohol problems among younger serviceman.l1l A 1984 Special Report by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention confirms the findings of the earlier study by reporting that 84.4 percent of all military personnel consume alcoholic beverages and that heavy drinking occurs most often among personnel aged 24 and under.' 12 More recently, the Federal Trade Commission staff noted that "the Department of Defense has developed a number of informational and educational campaigns designed to combat alcohol abuse on military bases."113 This resolution extends this concern about young drinkers, when it addresses the potential dangers of alcohol marketing directed at college students, many of whom are in the same age group as under 21 servicemen.114

The 21 proposal is widely supported by public and private agencies across the country.115 This issue, however, does have its critics. One often-repeated criticism is that the arguments for prohibiting drinking by those under 21 years old could just as readily be made for drinkers under 24 years old, based on the equally appalling statistics for that older group.116 One commentator responded to this criticism by stating that:

(M)uch merit could be seen in a drinking age of 25. People between 21 and 24 ... are significantly over-represented in alcohol-related crashes, (although not quite as overrepresented as are 18-20 year olds)... (I)n all honesty, however, the selection of 21 as the proposed minimum drinking age is dictated largely by pragmatism. It is unlikely that a higher age would receive the public and political support necessary to secure its enactment.' 17

The statistics on deaths per licensed drivers also indicate that ages 18 through 21 are the highest impacted age group, with 18 the peak age, and each year after that "tailing off."118 There are qualitative as well as quantitative differences between the under and over 21 ification.l i 9 Perhaps the answer to the query, "why just under 21?" is that it works. States that have raised their minimum drinking age have reported significant decreases in the involvement of the affected age groups.120 The state of Michigan raised the drinking age to 21 in 1978 and reported that alcohol-related traffic accidents in the 18-20 year old age group had decreased by 31 percent in 1979.121 Confirmation of this deterrent effect has also been reported in Illinois where in 1980 the drinking age was raised to 21. For that year, single-vehicle nighttime accidents involving male drivers under the age of 21 decreased 8.8 percent.122 In a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a 28 percent decrease in alcohol-related accidents was reported in eight of nine states where the drinking age had been raised.123

Finally, a major concern of proponents of the 21 year old drinking age is the problem of "blood borders," the noticeably higher fatality rates at or near borders between states with differing drinking ages. Drivers from the state with the more restrictive drinking age travel to a contiguous state that has a less restrictive drinking age law. Numerous studies document the high incidence of alcohol-related traffic fatalities at or near the borders of these neighboring states.124 These border tragedies demonstrate the need for uniform minimum laws. A clear plurality of states have set 21 as the minimum drinking age with others proposing legislation at this time. Accordingly, this recommendation and report urge the states to adopt a uniform 21 drinking age for the purchase and possession of all alcoholic beverages.

102See, e g., testimony of Alan Stoudemire, M.D., Minuard McGuire, Al Mooney, M.D., William Coletti, Atlanta; and George Hacker, Esq., Phyllis Schepps, John F. Vassallo, Jr., Princeton.

103See, e.g., Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving, Final Report, supra note 74, at 5-6; The Secretary's Conference for Youth on Drinking and Driving, at 2 (U.S. Gov. Printing Office 1983); Fill, Alcohol  Involvement in Traffic Accidents, DOT-HS-806-269 (May, 1982).

104See AAA Report, supra note 73, at 3.
In 1981, 4,884 persons died in alcohol-related highway accidents in which the driver was under 21. This represents 23.6 percent of all alcohol-related fatalities. Drivers under 21 represent about 10 percent of the licensed drivers, drive about 9 percent of the vehicle miles driven.
See also National Association of Bráadcasters, Drunk Driving: A National Responsibility ... A Local Solution at 1 (1984).
Although 16-20 year olds comprise only 10 percent of the licensed drivers in this country and account for less than 8 percent of the total vehicle miles traveled, they are involved in 20 percent of all fatal alcohol-related crashes.

105Secretary's Conference, supra note 103.

106Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, The Year's Work 1983-1984 at 5 (1984). See also AAA Report, supra note 104.

107This figure is derived from the table entitled "State Legal Drinking Age Summary (9/30/84)", prepared and published by the U.S. Department of Transportation, reprinted in, Drunk Driving: A National Responsibliity, supra note 89. See Appendix A, "Status of Efforts to Raise Legal Drinking Age to 21."

108Id.

109Cook and Tauchen, The Effect of Minimum Drinking Age Legislation on Youthful Auto Fatalities, 1970-77, 13 J. Legal Stud. 169 (1984).
110d., Cook and Tauchen report that 14 of these 29 states had reversed earlier amendments which had previously lowered the drinking age.

111Comptroller General of the U.S., Alcoholism Among Military  Personnel, A Report to the Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics, U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (1971) at 6:
(A)bout 38 percent of the problem drinkers identified by squadron commanders ... were in the 17 to 24 age group.... [With] the younger servicemen drinking was repetitive, undisciplined...[and] had caused their commanders problems....
Heavy drinking, however, often starts among younger servicemen and could develop progressively into a more serious problem. Id. at 8.

1120JJDP Report, supra note 6, at 19.

113See Recommendation of the Staff of the Federal Trade Commission, Omnibus Petition for Regulation of Unfair and Deceptive Alcoholic Beverage Advertising and Marketing Practices, Docket No. 209-46, at 42 (March 1, 1985).

114See the recommendation and report on college marketing.

115See• e.g., supra note 87-90. See also Ross, Deterring the Drinking Driver, at 114 (Lexington, 1981); Prohibit the Sale of Alcoholic Beverages to Persons Under 21 Years of Age, Hearings of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation and Tourism, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Oct. 4 and 19, 1983, 98th Cong. 1st Sess. on H.R. 3870, No. 98-105 (U.S. Gov. Printing Office 1984).

116Drinking Age 21: Facts, Myths and Fictions, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, at 11 (1984).

1171d.

118lnsurance Institute for Highway Safety, Status Report, Vol. 16, No. 14 at 3 (Sept. 23, 1981).

119See testimony of William Coletti, Atlanta.

120See Williams, Zador, Harris and Korph, The Effect of Raising the Legal Minimum Drinking Age on Involvement in Fatal Crashes, 12 J. Legal Stud. 169 (1983).

121AAA Report, supra note 73, at 2.

122Id.

123Id.

124See, e.g., Lillis, Wilians, Williford, Special Policy Consideration in Raising the Minimum Drinking Age: Border Crossing By Young Drivers, paper presented at National Alcoholism Forum, April 12-15, 1984.