Potential changes to the drinking age are afoot in two U.S. states.

Voters in California could soon decide whether to lower the state's drinking age from 21, while lawmakers in Minnesota will consider bills making it legal for 18, 19 and 20 year olds to drink in bars and restaurants.

A 1984 law established the national drinking as 21, with the federal government telling states it would withhold highway funding if they didn't abide. But Phyllis Kahn, a longtime state rep in Minnesota, believes a provision in Obamacare now makes states immune from that threat, according to the Pioneer Press, a newspaper in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

This has inspired Kahn to introduce two bills addressing the legal age: one would lower the drinking age in bars and restaurants to 18; the other would allow people under 21 to drink in bars and restaurants if they were with a parent, guardian or spouse of legal age. (Kahn prefers the first bill, the Pioneer Press said.)

The idea is to adopt a European mindset, the Pioneer Press reported, teaching young people how to drink responsibility in a social setting. They wouldn't be able to buy booze in liquor stores until they're 21.

In California, meanwhile, a guy named Terrance Lynn got the state's OK to begin collecting signatures to put its drinking age to a vote, according to the television station KTLA. Lynn has until April 26, 2016, to collect 365,880 signatures. If he does, Californians will vote on whether to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 in the November 2016 presidential election.

His opponents aren't as optimistic about the Obamacare loophole as the Minnesota lawmaker, KTLA reported, with budget watchers saying California could lose $200 million in highway funding if the vote passed. Mothers Against Drunk Driving have also spoken out against the initiative.

"When states had lower legal drinking ages in the U.S., the underage drinking problem was worse. For example, before the 21 minimum legal drinking age was implemented by all states, underage drunk drivers were involved in over twice as many fatal traffic crashes as today," the organization said on its website.

But Lynn believes this is an equal rights issue. He said on his website that 18 year olds "have nearly every burden and privilege of adults … except the right to drink alcohol."

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Michael Sebastian Michael Sebastian was named editor-in-chief of Esquire in June 2019 where he oversees print and digital content, strategy and operations.

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