<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion . You can help by adding to it . (December 2015) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion . You can help by adding to it . (December 2015) </Td> </Tr> <P> Several studies, including a 2011 review, were found to disprove the idea that raising the drinking age to 21 actually saved lives in the long run . For example, Miron and Tetelbaum (2009) found that when the federally coerced and non-coerced states were separated out, any lifesaving effect is no longer statistically or practically significant in the coerced states, and even in the voluntary - adopting states the effect does not seem to last beyond the first year or two . They also find that the 21 drinking age appears to have only a minor impact on teen drinking . There is also some evidence that traffic deaths were merely shifted from the 18 - 20 age group to the 21 - 24 age group rather than averted . Additionally, Canada, Australia, the UK, and several other nations saw similar or faster declines in traffic fatalities than the USA did since the early 1980s despite not raising their drinking ages to 21 . Thus, the magnitude of any public health and safety benefits of the 21 drinking age, at least relative to a legal drinking age of 18, remains unclear . </P>

To discourage states from permitting drinking between the ages of 18-21 congress