Addressing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) 

in College Communities

• In 1982, prompted by evidence linking younger drinking ages with increased alcohol-related highway deaths among youths, President Ronald Reagan appointed a Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving.  Its top recommendation was the passage of federal legislation to require all states to raise the MLDA to 21. 
• In 1984, 23 states had minimum alcohol purchasing ages of 21 years old, and on July 17th of that year, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to withhold federal highway funds from the remaining 27 states if they did not follow suit.
• The age-21 MLDA was universally adopted nationwide as of  July 1, 1998, when Wyoming became the last state to raise its drinking age to 21.

•  Fewer college students reported drinking in the past month in 2000 (67.4%) than in 1980 (82%), when younger drinking ages were the norm. [1]
• Annual alcohol use by high school seniors dropped from 87% in 1983 (before passage of the national MLDA law) to 73.2% in 2000. [2]
• Age-21 MLDA laws have reduced traffic fatalities involving drivers 18 to 20 years old by an estimated 13 percent and saved an estimated 20,042 lives since 1975.[3]
• The age-21 MLDA has also led to decreases in the number of teen DWI arrests, youth suicides, marijuana use, crime, and alcohol consumption by youth.[4, 5]

• Although young people drink less in response to age-21 MLDA, youth alcohol use is still widespread.  Nearly 10 million current drinkers in the United States are between the ages of 12 and 20. [6]
• By the time they are high school seniors, more than 80% of youths have used alcohol and more than 62% have been drunk.[7]
• Two out of three underage college students (63%) report drinking in the past month. [8]
• Beyond harm to drinkers themselves, colleges have good reason to be concerned about the damaging effect alcohol has on campus safety and the quality of student and academic life in general. A 1994 survey found that two-thirds of all property damage, 64% of violent behavior, 42% of physical injury, 37% of emotional difficulty, 38% of poor academic performance, and 28% of all drop outs could be attributed to alcohol. [9]

• Full-time college students on average drink more heavily than their non-college peers [11], and are heavily targeted by alcohol advertising and local bar promotions as a prized market for the alcoholic-beverage industry.  
• Heavy drinking norms are deeply ingrained in key segments of the college culture (fraternities and sororities, athletes, alumni events), and in student perceptions of the college social scene.
• Many campuses are surrounded by a concentration of bars and clubs that cater to college students. 
• Alcohol producers heavily target the college demographic through magazine, billboard, internet, and television advertising, as well as spring break promotions, on-site marketing, contests, concerts, and sporting events. 
• The MLDA is weakly and unevenly enforced, and the availability and use of high-quality fake IDs is widespread. 

• Offering substance-free housing and/or age-segregated housing;
• Restricting or prohibiting alcohol at social activities on campus or at activities sponsored by fraternities and other student organizations; 
• Aggressively enforcing minimum drinking age laws in residence halls and throughout campus; 
• Training Resident Assistants in how to respond to alcohol violations, and offering performance incentives for consistently enforcing policies; 
• Prohibiting of alcohol advertising (or advertising of discounted drinks) in student newspapers and university publications, and outlawing alcohol advertising and promotions on campus.
•  Eliminating alcohol advertising at college sports events and sponsorship of college sports programs;
• Providing alcohol-free late night social options, coffee houses or other alcohol-free gathering places on campus; 
• Revising school promotional materials and admissions criteria to change expectations of freshmen before they arrive on campus;
• Providing information to parents and students of alcohol policies and penalties for violations during orientation programs;
• Establishing Campus-Community partnerships focused on stemming the illegal flow of alcohol to underage students through bars, liquor stores, and off-campus parties, and; 
• Passing “21-to-Enter” ordinances setting an age restriction on entry to bars and clubs.

Age-21 laws help keep young people healthy by postponing the onset of alcohol use.  Deferred drinking reduces the risks of: 

• developing alcohol dependence or abuse later in life. [17] 
• harming the developing brain, a developmental process that continues into the early 20's. [18] 
• engaging in current and adult drug use. [19, 20] 
• suffering alcohol-related problems, such as trouble at work, with friends, family, and police.[21] 

• State motor vehicle fatality data from the 48 continental states found that lowering the drinking age for beer from 21 to 18 resulted in an 11% increase in fatalities among that age group. [25]  
• In Arizona, lowering the drinking age increased the incidence of fatal accidents by more than 25% and traffic fatalities by more than 35%.[26] 
• Lowering the drinking age in Massachusetts caused an increase in total fatal crashes,  alcohol-related fatal crashes, and alcohol-related property damage crashes among 18 to 20 year-old drivers. [27] 
• From 1979 to 1984, the suicide rate was 9.7% greater among young people who could legally drink alcohol than among their peers who could not. [28]