A Heated Debate : the Changing of the Drinking Age in Wisconsin during the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

This paper is about the drinking laws in the state of Wisconsin. It starts with the statutes that were first set up in state through to the 1980s. The 1970s to 1980s had issues dealing with the changing of the drinking age that happened due to the Twenty-sixth Amendment which lowered the voting age to eighteen. A common idea in many states was to lower many other aspects of adulthood from twenty-one to eighteen. One of those changes was with the drinking age. The changes in the drinking age did not occur in every state causing many problems across the country leading to the changes that happened in the early 1980s. Along with the patchwork drinking age across the country, Wisconsin had another problem of a lack of community support to keep alcohol out of underage students' hands. There was major public interest and support for a change in the drinking age in Wisconsin, but the greatest pressure for the change came from the federal government in the mid 1980s.