Fools and roads: because of what the United States raised the age of alcohol sales to 21 years

Surprisingly, roads are to blame. It all began with them, and it all ended with them, writes Tikhon Smirnov in his blog on zen.yandex.ru.

Фото: Depositphotos

In Russia with age restrictions, the picture is quite clear. From the age of 18 you can get married, watch any movie, drive a car, open a company, get a loan, serve in the army, buy cigarettes and alcohol.

Or, for example, we also have the same age of consent throughout the country - 16 years. In America, the scheme is a little more complicated. It, depending on the state, varies from 16 to 18 years. So, they used to have the same story with alcohol.

In 1975, there were states in the USA where it was possible to consume from the age of 18, there were states where it was allowed to do this from 19, somewhere they sold alcohol in general only from 20 or 21 years old.

On the subject: New York illegal immigrants can now get a driver’s license: how it works

But a series of events happened, due to which in the 80s throughout the country, alcohol began to be sold exclusively from the age of 21.

War and vote

When Prohibition was repealed in the United States (1933), most states set the drinking age at 21. This went on for almost forty years - until 1971.

In those years, America actively fought in Vietnam and the government was faced with strong resentment from citizens. The fact is that then the right to vote was given to people from the age of 21, and military duty came earlier (at 18).

I had to urgently make amendments and reduce the age of voters from 21 to 18 years. So one signature in the document added 11 million new voters.

After these changes, many (but not all) states decided that if a person can fight and vote, then he also needs to be allowed to drink alcohol from 18. So they did. In the 70s, most of America began to drink from this age.

Unfortunately, a few years later this led to a very serious problem. It turned out that in 1982 alone, more than 50 people died on US roads in road accidents, and half of these cases were caused by drunk drivers.

On the subject: How illegals manage to work and study in the USA: answers to the main questions

They began to sort things out and found that a huge number of teenagers drive cars to a neighboring state, where they can legally buy alcohol.

Often they began to use directly on the way back.

"Bloody Borders"

To combat the problem, they launched large-scale social advertising (in which Michael Jackson even took part), but it did not work very well. Like all these pictures today on packs of cigarettes.

The paradox was that when a state raised the sale of alcohol in a state, it only worsened the situation. Young drivers were forced to drive cars to their neighbors to buy swill there.

However, many states were in no hurry to raise their age. Imagine that all the shops in the area have been selling alcohol since 21, and you are 18 years old. This is incredibly beneficial.

Total

Reagan had to intervene in this story and put pressure on regions that refused to obey. He promised to keep 5% of the travel budget in states where alcohol would be sold to people under the age of 21.

Through the economy, the authorities have achieved their goal. In such a strange way, roads became a source and at the same time a solution to the problem of drinking alcohol while driving and introducing a uniform age for selling alcohol throughout the country.

Read also on ForumDaily:

What you need to know about Real ID in 2020: answers to the most common questions

What laws will take effect in California in 2020 year

Personal experience: mistakes that our people make after moving to the USA

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.