I was Governor of Kansas in 1984 when President Ronald Reagan and his administration, in a not-so-subtle fashion, blackmailed states to change state laws on access to alcohol from 18 to 21 years of age. The question now is, after over thirty years of experience with the drinking age at 21, is it really working and accomplishing the worthy goals that were set forth? I say no. But more than that, I say in many ways it has done harm not anticipated at the time. Consumption of alcohol by 18, 19, and 20 year olds has, in my assessment, not gone down—although one can find stats to back up whatever position you take. What has really happened is that their drinking has gone underground and likely has accelerated the huge issue of binge drinking, particularly on college campuses. Given that much of the activity has moved from public facilities to the shadows where any kind of supervision or oversight is for practical purposes gone, this should not surprise us.

Law enforcement and local courts spend time and resources trying to enforce the current law with limited success, where if the law was changed, their focus could be on the real problem of excessive and binge drinking and the many other costs associated with it—including big problems like drinking and driving, domestic violence, and sexual assault. If more of the drinking is brought back into public view, consumption might even go down. In 1986, as Governor of Kansas, I also pushed the state to modernize our liquor laws and change the Constitution to allow liquor to be sold by the drink. It was passed on a 2 to 1 margin over the threat that consumption would soar and driving fatalities would dramatically increase. Neither took place, and in fact, consumption went down in the immediate years that followed.
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I suggest this with absolutely no disrespect to MADD. I simply believe we have given it enough time and, with the results, we have the justification to change back. I’m motivated and informed by my ten years on a college campus and going on three years as a faculty advisor to a fraternity. Young people drinking is not the problem. It is the irresponsible use of alcohol and binge drinking that makes no sense and causes real harm. If we put the energy and money wasted on enforcing a law that can’t be enforced into the real problems, we’d be much better off. So let’s do it. Make it 18, and add more common sense back into our alcohol laws.

I was serving as Governor of Kansas when President Reagan and his administration, in 1984, pushed the states to increase the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. This was not done with inside-the-beltway political pressure but simply the financial pressure of withholding 10% of the Federal Highway Funds that each state was scheduled to receive. Responding positively simply came down to not wanting to lose millions of dollars that were desperately needed for our highway infrastructure.

The credit for initiating and supporting this change goes to MADD or Mothers Against Drunk Driving who organized a massive national campaign to address the legitimate concern about drunk drivers. Few, if any, argued that we didn’t have a problem. But even at that time, there was huge concern that the remedy would have little or no impact on the problem. In addition, 18 year olds can join the military and go into harm’s way, vote in all elections, marry without parental consent, purchase cigarettes, and can consent to their own medical treatment. The logical question then is why should this one area be treated differently?

The process for how this change came about was an example where well-organized and passionate citizens, persistent in their vision, can successfully impact public policy, even at the national level. That process of citizen engagement and leadership on challenging issues, I very much like. I just didn’t at the time agree with this direction, which opens the door for further analysis of the outcomes and more engagement on the differing perspectives that exist now after over 30 years of experience with this policy. I hope you’ll consider participating in the poll, adding to the discussion through the comments section below, and keeping an eye out for my next post on this topic.