On December 28th, 2019 Tobacco 21 was passed Federally! 35 years prior The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed on July 17th, 1984 which stated that all states that did not have a drinking age of 21 Years or older would loose 5% of their Federal Highway Funding! 

What’s wrong with this? In short terms it is Taking away the rights of United States Citizens who are the Legal Age of Majority which is 18 years of age! 

Once you have reached this milestone in the United States you are legally able to 

• Get Tattoo’s and Piercings without parental consent
• Get Married without Parental consent  
• Become Age of Consent in some states
• Sign and be legally forced to Abide by contracts 
• Be tried as an adult and serve time in an adult facility 
• Become responsible for your own health in a doctors office, hospital, etc
• Own a house, buy a car, or open a business 
• Get a credit card
• Sign up to be drafted if the government sees a need to start a draft (for Males) 
• Adopt a pet
• Move out and live on your own without Parental Consent or Emancipation
• Enter an adult themed store and purchase pornographic material
•  And many more things 

If you are under 21 you are legally unable to do the following:

• Consume an Alcoholic Beverage 
• Purchase tobacco products 
• Consume Marijuana in states where recreational use is legal 

The problem lies where legally defined adults cannot do certain adult things! We are legally defined as adults and are responsible for ourselves at this point but we are unable to consume substances which is absurd in the opinion of many people aged 18-20

There are many arguments form drunk driving to preventing lung cancer and simply the belief that the brain isn’t fully developed yet which are all very reasonable arguments, but one argument remains clear that the United States is one of the only developed nations restricting adult rights! Many countries have a drinking and tobacco age set at 18 some even lower such as Germany where you can consume lower alcohol volume beverages such as beer and wine at 16! 

Some history with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act includes the fact that drunk driving was an issue before it was passed and still is! During that time period each individual state had a right to set it’s own drinking age which led to teens crossing borders to drink in a state where it was legal and then coming back on an interstate highway traveling at a high rate of speed while intoxicated leading to deadly consequences! What the government refused to see was simply changing the age to 18 no higher or lower across the U.S. would have eliminated a lot of the problem by reducing the fact that teenagers and adults would have to cross state lines to get drunk and come back and make a deadly mistake on a freeway, but instead they took away the right of all legal adults over the decisions of some irresponsible people! Even a 50 year old can be as irresponsible and drive drunk but a 50 year old is legally allowed to drink but an 18 year old who is responsible enough isn’t 

Tobacco 21 came into play during the youth vaping crisis in the United States after a surge of illnesses linked to vaping! However it was proven time and time again that only illegally manufactured THC cartridges sold on the black market were to blame for this since they were laced with Vitamin E Acetate and not standard Vegetable Glycerin or Propylene glycol! It also came into play to prevent people under 18 from getting vaping devices! Once again the government ignored key factors and stripped away rights based on the fact that some people were irresponsible and provided minors with tobacco and at the same time didn’t educate themselves on what was truly causing illness! As a result legal adults lost their rights once again! 

What we want is simple, we want our rights back! Just because some mistakes were made by irresponsible people doesn’t mean everyone should loose their rights, Again a 50 year old can legally drink and vape but at the same time there are most likely 50 year olds providing minors with vaping devices, illegally manufacturing THC cartridges, and driving while intoxicated but they aren’t loosing their rights are they? At this point it is clear to say that 18-20 year olds deserve the right to make their own decisions when it comes to drinking, vaping, smoking, etc! So give us these rights back! There are ways to limit the risk factors and irresponsibility without taking away rights

Ways to Limit risks

• Lower the legal limit from 0.08% BAC to 0.04% BAC
• More DUI Checkpoints  
• Increase penalties for providing tobacco to people under 18 
• Provide more Alcohol Safety Education NOT Alcohol Abstinence Education 
•  Increase Penalties for providing THC cartridges that are laced with harmful chemicals like Vitamin E Acetate   
• Lower the legal drinking age to 18 No Higher or Lower to reduce Intoxicated driving when adults travel to states with a lower drinking age 
• When Federal Marijuana Prohibition ends keep the purchase and consumption age at 18