American drinking age laws?

put down his beer long enough to post :

Yes, that is exactly how it works. Similarly, if you are from England they will let you drive on the left side of the road when you come to the U.S.

It is alleged that Steve/Aus claimed:

I doubt it. While this is a matter left to the states, the feds are not above blackmailing states into enacting certain rules by threatening to withhold federal funds for road projects... which they did to get a uniform drinking age of 21 across the country.

Of course. Even if it's only the kind of notice that prompts them to find non-legal ways to get alcohol.

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 05:19:59 -0500, Phil wrote (in article ):

I found it totally inappropriate that a highway funding bill was keyed to the drinking age within a state. That congress would accede to such a limitation in conjunction with the highway bill is deplorable.

As an aside, when I attended Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Appleton, Wisconsin the drinking age was 18 for beer and wine and 21 for whiskey and such. Interestingly there were two places in Appleton where the law was effectively ignored, a pizza parlor frequented mainly by high school students who could purchase beer and wine without showing ID, and a bar near the college campus where students could purchase spirits, again without showing ID. In both cases there was police monitoring and if someone got out of hand from over drinking the police would take them home. It was stated that having these two places where underage drinking was permitted in effect prevented people from going to the woods to drink if they were underage. There are times when allowing a breaking of the law has benefits!

Phil wrote: ...

As if we needed any further proof that Clinton sucked!

On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 04:12:36 -0500, sleurB kciN wrote (in article ):

The National Minimum Age Drinking Act was signed into law in 1984 by then President, Ronald Reagan.

IIRC, the national age was raised to twenty-one, then, but the states were able to keep it at eighteen if they chose to. It wasn't until later on that the threat of withholding highway funds was used to raise the drinking age.

Phil

Not according to this analysis of the act:

(Note that the final vote proves once again that the "nanny state" strain exists in both national political parties...).

Oh, yeah, and for the record, it was Monica who "sucked".