Why is the drinking age 21?

From the blog, mental_floss, comes an interesting and in-depth article about the history of the drinking age in the United States.

The concept that a person becomes a full adult at age 21 dates back centuries in English common law; 21 was the age at which a person could, among other things, vote and become a knight. Since a person was an official adult at age 21, it seemed to make sense that they could drink then, too.

Considering that the drinking age was once lowered to 18, the age at whichthe courts consider you a legal adult, why did it revert back to the age of 21?

Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving began agitating for a uniform national drinking age of 21 to help eliminate these blood borders and keep alcohol out of the hands of supposedly less-mature 18-year-olds. As a result, President Reagan signed the aforementioned National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. MADD’s “Why 21?” website touts a National Traffic Highway Administration finding that the raised drinking age policy saves around 900 lives a year. Traffic reports show a 62% decrease in alcohol fatalities among teen drivers since 1982. Raw numbers show that drunk driving fatalities have definitely dropped since the early 1980s; despite an 88% increase in the number of miles driven, 2007 saw over 8,000 fewer total alcohol-related traffic fatalities than 1982.

Why analyze this now? Currently the Amethyst Initiative is pushing a proposal to reconsider the national drinking age of 21. Launched in July 2008, the Amethyst Initiative is made up of chancellors and presidents of universities and colleges across the United States. These higher education leaders have signed their names to a public statement that the 21 year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses. I couldn't agree more.

By the way, when researching a picture for this post, I typed "drunk teen" into Google Images, thinking I'd get something clever. Let's just say that didn't go as planned, hence the prohibition image.