The legal drinking age of 21 is effective and saves lives, reports a recent review in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
People have debated whether the drinking age should be lowered again or not, but researchers found that studies done since 2006 have supported the law and its effectiveness. It seems the law curbs drinking hazards like drunk-driving, suicide, dating violence and unprotected sex.
The research team believes this evidence mandates that the 21 legal limit stay in effect.
"The evidence is clear that there would be consequences if we lowered the legal drinking age," lead researcher Dr. William DeJong of Boston University School of Public Health said in a press release.
The U.S. legal-drinking age in the early 1970s used to be around the ages 18, 19 or 20 in 29 states, but after more drunk driving crashes among teenagers, the federal law bumped the minimum drinking age up to 21 in 1988.
In recent years, this decree has been challenged, but DeJong's review supports past studies in saying that since the legal drinking age was set at 21, young people have been drinking less and drunk-driving incidents are likely to be fewer.
In one study, researchers found that, in 2011, 36 percent of college students said in the past two weeks they'd engaged in heavy drinking (that's five or more drinks in a sitting or "binge" drinking). That's compared to 43 percent of students in 1988, the first year that all United States had an age-21 law.
DeJong notes that many adolescents do break the law and drink anyway, but they take fewer risks - like avoiding getting behind the wheel - so that they don't get caught. He adds that some teens do abide by the law, too.
DeJong concludes, saying tougher enforcement, rather than repeal, of the law is what's needed.
"Just because a law is commonly disobeyed doesn't mean we should eliminate it," he stated.
Clinical trials, he notes, have found that student drinking declines when police crack down, and let college students know that they will not be lenient.
