They were talking about the legal drinking age on C-Span this morning, in the context of a Rand Corporation study (I think) that found that those who started drinking earlier tended to engage in more anti-social behavior as adults.

I'm pretty moderate when it comes to substance abuse laws, but I think our drinking laws are terribly incoherent and dumb.

Basically, it boils down to this: If you're an adult at 18, subject to all the negative consequences that entails, then you should have all the rights it entails as well.

It's idiotic that an 18 year-old can be called upon to kill and die for their country, but that same country won't legally allow them to have a beer.