So Tennessee has just enacted a law that requires vendors of off-premises packaged beer to card EVERYBODY that buys. This includes 90-year olds.
Link... [1]

I understand the desire to be consistent on this and not put vendors on the spot, but this whole drinking age business is just ridiculous. We are the only country in the world with a 21-year old drinking age. We enforce that drinking age more strictly than every other nation in the world. And yet, it is the United States that has more problems with binge drinking and - to some extent - drunk driving than others. Why?

I vigorously opposed the 21-year old drinking age when I was underage myself - as did just about all under 21 folk. But at 33, I still think it's just an idiotic law that does nothing to control the effects of alcohol abuse or drunk driving.

Supporters of the draconian American drinking age cite the dramatic drop in drunk driving deaths after the Federal government passed the 21-year old drinking age law (revealing Ronald Reagan's so-called federalism to be a fraud). A big problem with this argument is that the same time the Feds and the states raised the drinking age, they also jacked up the penalties for driving drunk. As recently as the late 1970s, many states gave drivers nothing more than a reckless driving ticket for drunk driving - and that was only when the driver was OBVIOUSLY intoxicated and out of control. Of course the drunk driving deaths were going to drop when states started actually punishing drunk drivers. There is no evidence that the increased drinking age alone accounts for the drop in drunk driving deaths.

Here's the reality in high schools and on college campuses today: alcohol is abused in large part because it's illegal. I vividly remember turning 21 and being thrilled about it for about a week. I got into all the bars I never tried to before. And then, quickly afterward, a big part of the drinking appeal wore off. It wasn't "cool" anymore because it was perfectly acceptable. In the end, the drinking age works just as effectively as sex abstinence campaigns: not at all.

It's time to encourage responsible drinking to young people instead of threatening their livelihoods even when they drink responsibly. Cracking down on "underage drinkers" may drum up votes from the MADD crowd and from neo-prohibitionists, but it does nothing to stop or control binge drinking or drunk driving. If anything, let's lower the drinking age to 16 and raise the driving age to 18. Learn your limits with alcohol - with adult supervision - before getting behind the wheel of a car. Every other culture around the world does it that way. Why not us?