Yes, I didn't mean to turn this into a debate on the merits of alcohol consumption or the role of the government in regulating it. I was using ex post facto res

Yes, I didn't mean to turn this into a debate on the merits of alcohol consumption or the role of the government in regulating it. I was using ex post facto research (that's probably not very strong anyway) as a rationalization for the current drinking age to suggest it's not just an "arbitrary number", but as I said in cousin comment there are similar justifications for other seemingly arbitrary numbers.