<Settling powdered wig firmly on head and adjusting robe in preparation for lecture>
With the repeal of national prohibition, the United States Constitution was amended to provide that the "transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited." US Const, Am XXI.
This provision was included in the repeal of prohibition to afford independent authority to the various states to regulate the production and use of alcohol. Because the authority is specified in the federal constitution, it exists on equal footing with other constitutional provisions and is not easily limited. The resultant laws vary not only from state to state, but in some places, from county to county or city to city.
In Michigan, which is one of 18 states known as "control" states, the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is closely controlled, and every bottle which comes into the state is wholesaled by the state and is highly taxed. The legal drinking age is 21, with limited exceptions, such as certain educational and religious uses. MCL 436.33b(13).
It matters not to the policymakers that persons who are regarded as too young to responsibly consume alcohol are legally old enough to serve in the military, marry, contract, be employed, or otherwise go about their adult lives; the regulation of alcohol generates revenue. There is a good argument to be made that strict controls only make alcohol an object of desire and its use a right of passage, and, consequently, render our teens alcohol abusers. But, the standard for strict control of alcohol was established by the cultural descendents of Puritans, and that cultural standard combines with the monetary interests of the states to perpetuate the situation.
I prefer a more sensible approach. Recently, when my three-year-old son kept trying to help himself to a glass of Chardonnay my husband was drinking, I poured some in a separate cup for him and let him have a sip. He took one taste, his whole body shuddered, and he walked over and dumped the contents of the cup down the drain. And that will be the last time he thinks alcohol is the thing for quite some time.
