Minnesota Lowering Legal Drinking Age to 18?

Many people think that lowering the drinking age limit will keep underage binge drinking down, so there's a proposal to lower the Minnesota drinking age to 18 this year.

There's a lot of change happening right now in Minnesota with laws. There's the proposal to allow Sunday liquor sales that may just go through this year. There's also another proposal getting pushed harder than ever to finally legalize marijuana in Minnesota. Next item on the list is lowering the legal drinking age to 18 years or older.

Currently in Wisconsin it's legal for anybody under the age of 21 to drink in a bar or restaurant with their parents. It's at the discretion of the establishment to allow that, but most allow it. If you think that keeps these young adults from being binge drinkers, keep in mind that Wisconsin ranks 1st in the nation for the drunkest college students.

The Minnesota law would be very similar, but making it over 18, and not just any age. The bill was proposed originally by Senator Phyllis Kahn last February, and was proposed again this month.

The proposal basically states that anybody over the age of 18 to 21 can drink in a bar or restaurant under supervision of the general public. They can be cut off at any time by the bartender or waitress. You would still need to be 21 to purchase alcohol off-sale.

How does Governor Dayton feel about this? He's not in favor of it! His response states:

I think we are better off staying where we are. I haven’t talked to any of the legislators about it, I don’t have an etched-in-concrete position, but this debate has been going on appropriately for many years now, and the middle ground comes down to: It should be 21, where it is now.

I personally think the only benefit of this is to the 18-20 year olds, and that's it. We all know how annoying it is to see a 21 year old "newbie" drinker at a bar, excited about their newfound freedom, slopping all over everybody. An 18 year old is going to be 10x worse, especially the first year of this law changing. I'm fine with the 21 year old law, and can tolerate it somewhat...even here in St. Cloud.

Source: Lawstreet