21 or 18? That is the question being debated in Minnesota. Doug Belden from the Twin Cities reports.

Minnesota drinking age debate resurfaces with federal ruling

Longtime state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, who has tried for years without success to lower Minnesota’s drinking age, is back with two bills that would allow people younger than 21 to drink in bars and restaurants.

“It’s a very good way to deal with the serious problem of binge drinking, particularly on college campuses,” said Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, who has the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College in her district.

Kahn’s efforts have faced opposition in the past and will again this session, including from Gov. Mark Dayton, but she said there are new reasons for optimism.

The state no longer has to worry about forfeiting federal funds if it lowers the drinking age, Kahn said, and she has several co-sponsors from both parties, at least one willing committee chair in the House and a senator planning to push her bills in that chamber.

The bill she prefers would lower the drinking age in bars and restaurants to 18. The idea is to let young people learn to drink socially as they do in Europe, she said, so they’re not scrambling for fake IDs or stocking up on liquor illegally and then binge-drinking in their rooms.