Alcohol consumption by youth in the United States

[5] Reagan threatened states with withholding 5% of federal funding for highways if they did not comply with increasing the drinking age to 21.

[7] In 2008, McCardell and the presidents of over 100 U.S. colleges and universities launched the Amethyst Initiative, a campaign to debate the effectiveness of present alcohol laws.

[9] As it stands, any state that lowers its alcohol purchase or possession age would lose five percent of its federal highway funding.

These opinions generally lead to the argument that it is far more effective and beneficial for laws to monitor, limit, and guide healthy drinking habits rather than to outright ban it.

Dwight B. Heath, a Professor at Brown points out the ‘forbidden fruit’ syndrome that is created when the drinking age is so high.

[18][better source needed] According to a United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration study involving 30,000 youths 12 to 20 years of age, between 2002 and 2013 the percentage of underage drinkers declined from 28.8% to 22.7%.

A December 2014, study performed by the University of Michigan also found that 75% of senior high school students disapproved of drinking excessively on the weekends.

[11] According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obtained by The Hill, drug and alcohol-related deaths among children aged 15 to 19 have increased from 788 in 2018 to 1,755 in 2021.

[19] Those who oppose a complete ban on underage drinking argue that it is important that minors be introduced to alcohol in a controlled environment, so that supervision and guidance might occur instead of experimentation.

[20] Social host ordinances have been enacted in a number of jurisdictions to attempt to limit the parties where adults may permit minors to drink.