18 or 21?

The federal law boosting the minimum legal drinking age to 21 is credited with saving about 23,000 lives, or about 1,000 lives a year, since its passage in 1984. In the wake of renewed calls to reduce the age to 18, the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcoholand Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention, located at EDC, has developed a fact sheet and resource bank. They highlight effective alcohol abuse prevention programs and offer responses to such questions as “If people can go to war, shouldn’t they be able to have a beer?” and “Don’t other countries have fewer alcohol-related problems than the U.S.?”