should arizona lower the drinking age to 18? why or why not?

Answer 1

federal law requires that states must set their drinking ages at no less than 21, or else they lose federal highway funds. arizona can lower the drinking age to whatever they want, but it'll sacrifice quite a bit of money by doing so.

it's a ridiculous law, and while the supreme court upheld it in South Dakota v. Dole, i still think it's unconstitutional.

that being said, i still think the drinking age should be set to 21. i know that people will always say that "in europe you can drink at (12 or 14 or 15 or whatever)" but the fact of the matter is that culturally, europeans tend not to abuse alcohol the way we americans do. that, and europeans do not drive nearly as much as we do (due to their public transportation systems).

raising the drinking age has been proven to lower drunken-driving fatalities on US highways. this is indisputable.

however, there is still that argument that "if someone can join the military they should be able to order a beer." i think we can (and should) have it both ways on that issue: i think the law should be changed to keep the drinking age at 21, but lower it to 18 for those in the military (and with a military ID, of course).

an 18-year old going to iraq certainly deserves to be able to go to the bar and grab a beer. i do not, however, think that some kid 18-20 should have that same right, merely because he is of military age, if he himself is not in the military.

Answer 2

I don't live in Arizona, but... no state will lower their drinking ages. Drinking ages used to be different in different states, but the federal government wanted it to be all the same. However, that's a state law issue and states had the right to change the drinking age if they so chose... so the federal government through it's commerce power, decided to offer extra money for roads to states that had 21 as their drinking age. States can choose whether they want to accept that money, but no state wants to reject that money because they'd have to find that money from other sources like taxes. Making the drinking age 21 is very easy thing for the state to do and acquiring money is more difficult. So the drinking age will not change in any state.

Answer 3

No, 18 years old is too young to be able for anyone to have a beer and probably get drunk at that age. If you're serving in the army, that's a different story. Have one on me at 18.

Answer 4

While some 18 year olds can handle the responsibility, I think there are too many who can't. Moreover, Arizona would have to forego all federal transportation funding if they did it, so that really wouldn't be worth it.

Answer 5

NO!
BIG mistake
They tried that here in Marylandf years ago and the rate of accident fatalities went sky high,
They moved it back tro 21

Answer 6

Why Not? The same argument was made when I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca in the early 70's...If the young men and women are old enough to serve their country, they should be old enough to be served!!