CHI Resolution on Drinking Age Law

Chemical Health Initiative of Goodhue County

Steering Committee Resolution


Whereas, the National Traffic Highway Administration (NHTSA) estimates that the 21minimum drinking age law has saved approximately 900 lives per year since President Reagan signed into law the Uniform Drinking Age Act mandating all states adopt 21 as the legal drinking age and all states came into compliance in 1988; and

Whereas, the NHTSA estimates that more than 17,000 people are alive today since all states came into compliance in 1988; and

Whereas, the drinking age law is one of the nation’s most examined laws with countless studies that have been conducted to measure the law’s effectiveness-all of which have come to the same conclusion: the law saves lives; and

Whereas, the leading cause of death among population ages 16-24 is injury death and 40% of the injury related deaths ages 16-24 involve alcohol; and

Whereas, brain development research has established that the introduction of alcohol upon the young and developing brain carries substantial risk of impairment of normal brain development; and

Whereas, the several states that lowered their minimum drinking age law in the 1970s saw a corresponding increase in alcohol-related traffic fatalities; that a return to the 21 minimum drinking age laws in those states saw in a decrease in alcohol-related traffic fatalities;

NOW THEREFORE, the CHI Advisory Board hereby iterates its unqualified support of the existing 21 year old minimum drinking age law, and establishes for the public record its opposition to any political movement or legislative initiative that would lower the legal drinking age in the State of Minnesota.