The 21st-birthday countdown starts months in advance.
Some map out their shuffle route, retracing it day in and day out so they won’t forget while in a drunken stupor. Some save up to throw the party of the century, complete with hats and streamers. And some create a list of 21 shots they dare themselves to get through, hoping for a steel-lined stomach that night.
But this countdown didn’t exist until about 30 years ago.
It started with an incentive. If states didn’t change their drinking age to 21, they would lose vital federal highway funds.
“(Increasing the age) was not quite as bad a prohibition, but it’s within that realm,” said Philip Craig, executive director of the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association.
The push began in the 1970s and 1980s, when two key events happened.
First, the 26th amendment was passed in 1971, granting 18-year-olds the right to vote. Because of this, many states lowered the drinking age to 18, fusing the issues.
Second, Mothers Against Drunk Driving began gaining momentum. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan jumped aboard the movement, creating the Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving. One of the 39 recommendations was to raise the minimum legal drinking age to 21 in an attempt to curb this apparent “epidemic.”
As the nationwide debate heated up, the battle over the minimum age in Ohio became increasingly fierce.
At this point in history, each state was allowed to set its own drinking age. In Ohio, 18-year-olds could consume “low-powered” or “3.2 beer,” which contained no more than 3.2 percent alcohol, Craig said.
Wine, hard liquor and “high-powered” beer — or beer with 3.2 percent to 6 percent alcohol — required a 21-year-old’s driver’s license, he added.
In 1982, the Ohio legislature passed a bill eliminating “3.2 beer,” which took 18-year-olds off the VIP list of drinkers, according to an article published in the Oct. 6, 1982, Toledo Blade.
To garner more support for the bill, legislators lowered the drinking age of high-powered beer from 21 to 19, according to the article.
In response to the change, conflict between the factions on either side of the debate heated up.
The Coalition for 21, led by the Rev. Duane Somerville, fought to increase the drinking age to 21 for all alcoholic beverages, citing statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The statistics showed that nighttime fatal accidents involving 18- to 21-year-old drivers decreased 28 percent in states that made 21 the minimum age, according to an article published in the Oct. 31, 1983, Bryan Times.
Marcie Seidel, Drug-Free Action Alliance’s executive director, cited that danger as a present-day reason young people shouldn’t drink before turning 21.
“It’s a deadly combo when you take risk-taking individuals and numb their abilities with alcohol,” Seidel said. “There are fewer accidents among young people, and fewer young people drink when the minimum age is 21.”
Let 19 Work, a group fighting to keep 19 the magic number, fought back, stating the 1982 age limit needed more time to take effect, according to the article.
The group was concerned that “raising the beer-drinking age would merely drive the 18-to-20 crowd from the bars and into their cars to drink,” according to the article.
Craig holds the same sentiment 30 years later.
“When some members are left out, it’s confusing and insulting for that class,” Craig said. “It’s an enforcement nightmare. … People hold secret parties for alcohol consumption. … It’s completely unsafe and irresponsible.”
The bill, put on the table in 1983, was struck down.
But little did Ohioans know that they wouldn’t have much choice in the matter just a year later. In 1984, Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, forcing states to choose between its right to set a drinking age and critical federal funds.
The act did not mandate a national minimum drinking age, but if states didn’t comply with the federal government’s order in two years, they would lose 5 percent of the funds in the third year and 10 percent in the fourth.
All 50 states changed the age to 21 by 1987, according to Choose Responsibility, an organization in favor of lowering the drinking age.
The limit remains today.
“States cannot operate without their federal highway funds, so no states try to fight against the set age,” Craig said.
as218907@ohiou.edu
