Do you remember your first taste of alcohol? How old were you? Twenty-one? All 50 states currently demand that their citizens reach age 21 before they can legally drink. But there's a growing movement that says mandatory minimum laws may do more harm than good. When determining the right date when a young person can take one of their final steps towards personal responsibility and freedom, what's the right answer?
The 21 year-old drinking age minimizes the role of parents in encouraging responsible decisions about alcohol, placing them in an untenable position. They must either ignore the reality of alcohol consumption among young people and forbid their children from drinking or break the law by serving alcohol to their under-21 children. Neither option is acceptable to a responsible parent, or in a society governed by rule of law. Parents need to be re-enfranchised, again involved in the process of teaching their children how to make informed, healthy decisions about alcohol and its use.
Despite evidence that young people who drink with their parents are less likely to report drinking and getting drunk with peers, parents in most states who choose to introduce a son or daughter to alcohol in the privacy of the home violate the law. Imagine an analogous situation. A young person reaches legal driving age and secures a learner’s permit. But if a parent sits in the front seat advising him or her how to operate the vehicle safely, both parent and child violate the law, and the state loses 10 percent of its federal highway funds. Such a situation would be laughable, but this is precisely the situation in a majority of the states where alcohol is concerned.
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