The Drinking Age: An 18-Year-Olds Right Ever since the end of prohibition in 1933 the United States government has placed the issue of MLDA (minimum legal drinking age) sensitively in the hands of the states, letting each decide for itself what the minimum age should be. At that time all agreed that the minimum legal drinking age should be 21, where it remained for all states until 1970. Between 1970, and 1975 a number of states (29 to be exact) played around with the idea of lowering that age to 20, 19, and even 18 for some states. At this time the minimum age for other activities, like the right to vote were being lowered as well. The argument was that if a p