Wisconsin raised its minimum drinking age to 21 in 1986, after the federal National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDA) became law two years earlier. The federal mandate threatened to withhold federal highway funds from any state that didn’t comply with its orders. Despite staunch opposition to the change by Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus and Gov. Tony Earl, the threat of losing $7 million in federal funds was too much, and the drinking age went into effect on Sept. 1, 1986.
Naturally, the new law didn’t actually keep underage youths from drinking. It only made sure that when they did get their hands on alcohol, they had to drink a lot of it, since the chance may not come up again soon. Numerous studies have shown that binge drinking among underage drinkers has either remained the same or increased after enactment of the NMDA….