Crime Law and Policy: MADD National Drinking Age Act

MADD National Drinking Age Act
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MADD National Drinking Age Act
After the death of a thirteen-year-old Cari Lightner, who was hit by a run-away drunk driver and then her body left lifeless on the road in May 1980. Her mother Candace Lightner introduced non-profit organization named Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) (Fell & Voas, 2006). The organization was against drunk driving and it was also aimed at helping the victims of drunk drivers’ accidents victims. The MADD was unhappy due to the fact that the youths from New Jersey could easily purchase alcoholic drinks in New York.
In 1982 the organization attracted the attention of Senator Frank Lautenberg. With the reinforcement from the MADD organization, Frank Lautenberg pushed the Congress to introduce a minimum drinking age to twenty-one years (Liebschutz, 1985). The act was signed by the then president of the United States of America president Reagan. MADD played a major role in enforcing it and hence it was named “MADD National Drinking Age Act”. Every state had to comply with the law failure to which these states will lose a given percentage of federal dollars. By 1987 all states had implemented the act.
Since the introduction the MADD National Drinking Age Act it has been helpful in various ways. For example, according to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, nine hundred lives of people involved in the drunk driving have been saved yearly. That is more than twenty-five thousand lives today. In addition to this, the drinking habit among the youth has reduced. According to ...