March 12, 1999

Treat Students as Adults: Set the Drinking Age at 18, Not 21

By MICHAEL CLAY SMITH and MARGARET D. SMITH

In the 1980s, in an ebullient bid to curtail drunk driving by teenagers, the government imposed a nationwide minimum drinking age of 21. It was a kind of second Prohibition, albeit for young adults only. The law's goal, of course, was to make young people happier, healthier, and safer.

By now it is obvious that the law has not succeeded in preventing the under-21 group from drinking. The popular press and

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