This law or penalty was enacted to prevent drunken driving accidents among inexperienced young adults. As a result of the higher drinking age, "minors" eventually are forced to go to unsafe environments to drink so as not to be punished legally, but these environments are half the cause of deaths as a result of underage drinking. Young adults travel to locations outside their homes (usually in the woods or a farmer's fields) become intoxicated, and then drive home.
Mariposa is a classic example of a town where unsafe drinking occurs. Mariposa is a small mountain town about twenty minutes south of Yosemite national Park. The town consists of about 2,000 people, and everyone knows everyone. You could pretty much say everyone from about age sixteen and up drank. In high school I was always the sober driver, and drove to some pretty weird places. I used to call these places BFE, you can use your imagination on that one, but the first word is Butt and the last word is Egypt. I have seen people fall out of trees, climb up poles, jump into lakes and even wreck cars into trees and get out laughing, and drink more afterwards. .
The issue at hand is that everyone is going to drink regardless. Middle school kids drink, high school kids drink and college kids drink. Some states carry heavy penalties for drinking under the age, but does it stop them? Some states, in attempt to curb drinking, establish more laws restricting its purchase. The laws, however, are either so outrageous that they are not enforced or they contain loopholes to get around them. For example, in Houston, it is illegal to purchase alcohol after midnight on Sunday, but it can be purchased any time on Monday. So it's legal to buy it when its illegal to buy ?.
The greater question is, why are kids drinking? Is it social pressure or maybe the excitement of doing something they know that they are not supposed to, or do they just like the feeling of getting intoxicated?.