Vermont youth push to drink sooner
Andrea Glaessner
Issue date: 4/14/05 Section: Local News
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The National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) kicked off its campaign to lower the drinking age from 21- to 18-years-old in Vermont with a press conference on March 29. This event commenced the group's two-week public education campaign in which the NYRA will visit every college campus in the state in hopes of enlightening fellow young people about their cause and the issues surrounding alcohol consumption by minors.
From the end of Prohibition in 1933 until the National Minimum Drinking Act in 1984, drinking ages were determined by individual states. Most states set the drinking age at 21 years of age, but several others lowered the age to 18-years-old for the purchase of beer. From 1970 through 1975, nearly all states lowered their legal drinking ages, usually from 21 to 18. The general sentiment of the American public was rooted in the argument that if 18-year-olds were required to fight and die in a foreign war (specifically the Vietnam War) then they should be allowed the privilege of drinking alcohol.
But after the war, public sentiment changed. Alex Koroknay-Palicz, NYRA's 23-year-old president, said, "the baby boomers were aging and the freedoms which they had sought for themselves no longer seemed important when they involved someone else."
In 1984, due to the new conservativism facilitated by the Reagan administration, the impact of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and MADD President Cindy Lightner's extensive activism, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed. The actual bill required that "all States raise their minimum drinking age to 21 within 2 years or lose a portion of their Federal-aid highway funds." It also stated that government officials "encourage states, through incentive grant programs, to pass mandatory sentencing laws to combat drunk driving."
According to Koroknay-Palicz, "The portion of the Federal-aid highway funds that would be lost if the state didn't comply amounted to five percent in the third year and 10 percent in the fourth year." Interestingly, Koroknay-Palicz noted, "Reagan had initially threatened to veto the bill, citing that the provisions that punished states which didn't comply were an infringement upon states' rights. Reagan later changed from opposition to support, formally announcing his decision on June 13, 1984."
From the end of Prohibition in 1933 until the National Minimum Drinking Act in 1984, drinking ages were determined by individual states. Most states set the drinking age at 21 years of age, but several others lowered the age to 18-years-old for the purchase of beer. From 1970 through 1975, nearly all states lowered their legal drinking ages, usually from 21 to 18. The general sentiment of the American public was rooted in the argument that if 18-year-olds were required to fight and die in a foreign war (specifically the Vietnam War) then they should be allowed the privilege of drinking alcohol.
But after the war, public sentiment changed. Alex Koroknay-Palicz, NYRA's 23-year-old president, said, "the baby boomers were aging and the freedoms which they had sought for themselves no longer seemed important when they involved someone else."
In 1984, due to the new conservativism facilitated by the Reagan administration, the impact of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and MADD President Cindy Lightner's extensive activism, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed. The actual bill required that "all States raise their minimum drinking age to 21 within 2 years or lose a portion of their Federal-aid highway funds." It also stated that government officials "encourage states, through incentive grant programs, to pass mandatory sentencing laws to combat drunk driving."
According to Koroknay-Palicz, "The portion of the Federal-aid highway funds that would be lost if the state didn't comply amounted to five percent in the third year and 10 percent in the fourth year." Interestingly, Koroknay-Palicz noted, "Reagan had initially threatened to veto the bill, citing that the provisions that punished states which didn't comply were an infringement upon states' rights. Reagan later changed from opposition to support, formally announcing his decision on June 13, 1984."