Alcohol Laws Through the Ages

Humans Have Been Making Drinking Laws Forever—and Humans Have Been Finding Loopholes Just as Long.

Governments have been trying to control drinking almost as long as people have been drinking. Over the centuries, laws have regulated who could make alcohol, who could sell it, when it could be sold, where it could be consumed, and how old you had to be to buy it. And almost immediately after every new alcohol law appeared, someone somewhere began looking for the loophole.

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Apparently, “You can't do that” has always been one of humanity's favorite drinking challenges.

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978 — Behave Yourself in the Alehouse

During the reign of Æthelred II of England, laws addressed violence and breaches of the peace in alehouses, including monetary compensation when someone was injured or killed.
 

Medieval drinking establishments could be rough places. Knives were everyday tools, tempers were short, and alehouses were gathering places for virtually every level of society.

The medieval version of being 86'd apparently had considerably higher stakes.

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1189 — Please Stop Burning Down the Alehouses

Medieval English authorities increasingly regulated brewing, baking, fire, and building materials because densely packed towns filled with timber, straw, open flames, ovens, and brewing fires were essentially giant tinderboxes.

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1495 — Alehouses Get Government Attention

An English statute empowered justices to require alehouse keepers to provide assurances of good behavior. It was an early step toward government supervision of drinking establishments.

​Five hundred years later, bar managers are still asking employees to behave themselves.

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1552 — The Bar License Arrives

England's Ale Houses Act gave Justices of the Peace authority over alehouses and tippling houses and required keepers to be officially approved. The law specifically targeted the “abuses and disorders” occurring in drinking establishments and helped lay the foundation for Britain's modern alcohol-licensing system.

​In other words, by 1552 governments had discovered something every bar owner eventually learns:

You can't just open the doors, pour beer, and hope for the best.

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1839 — Children and Alcohol

Britain's laws involving children and alcohol developed gradually during the 19th and early 20th centuries and distinguished among buying, consuming, and being given alcohol, which makes declaring a single “first drinking age” surprisingly complicated.

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1851 — America's First Statewide Prohibition

Temperance crusader and Portland mayor Neal Dow helped push through Maine's landmark prohibition law.

Signed on June 2, 1851, the “Maine Law” prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages except for specified medicinal, mechanical, and manufacturing purposes. Maine became the first U.S. state to enact statewide alcohol prohibition.

​By 1855, a dozen states had followed Maine's lead.

America was getting a preview of coming attractions.

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1896 — The Raines Law & The Great Hotel Loophole

New York's Raines Law prohibited Sunday alcohol sales except in qualifying hotels, where drinks could be served with meals. It also raised New York's drinking age from sixteen to eighteen.

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Saloon owners promptly discovered the hotel loophole.

They added rooms, obtained hotel licenses, and served drinks with token “meals.” The resulting Raines Law hotels became notorious, and some of their barely used bedrooms became associated with prostitution.

Government: No drinking in saloons on Sunday.

Bartenders: Congratulations, we're a hotel.

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1905 — The “Absinthe Murder”

Swiss laborer Jean Lanfray murdered his pregnant wife and two children after consuming an enormous quantity of alcohol. During the day he had consumed wine, brandy, crème de menthe—and two glasses of absinthe.

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The temperance movement focused heavily on those two absinthes.

The case became sensationalized as the “Absinthe Murder,” fueling anti-absinthe hysteria. A petition to prohibit absinthe in Switzerland collected about 82,000 signatures, and a national referendum eventually resulted in a Swiss ban that took effect in 1910.

​Apparently, the wine, Cognac, and crème de menthe hired excellent attorneys.

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1908 — Britain's Very Young Drinking Law

Britain's Children Act 1908 prohibited giving intoxicating liquor to children under five except under specified circumstances such as medical necessity.

Yes, under five.

Which tells you considerably more about drinking culture in 1908 than I possibly could.

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1916 — Half of America Was Already Dry

By the time national Prohibition was approaching, the temperance movement had already convinced many states to prohibit alcohol. By 1916, 26 of America's 48 states were dry.

​So when national Prohibition arrived, half the country had essentially already started without everyone else.

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1920 — National Prohibition Begins

The 18th Amendment and Volstead Act ushered in national Prohibition. The manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquor were prohibited—but drinking alcohol itself was not federally prohibited.

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Prohibition helped create speakeasies, bootlegging networks, organized crime opportunities, bathtub gin, rum-running, and some extremely creative interpretations of the word “medicinal.”

America stopped drinking immediately.

And if you believe that, I have a speakeasy to sell you.

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1933 — Prohibition Ends

On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment.

Alcohol regulation largely returned to the states, which is why American liquor laws remain such a patchwork today.

​After repeal, most states established 21 as the minimum purchase age, although several chose 18, 20, or other rules. No single national drinking age existed.

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1970s — The Drinking Age Starts Dropping

After the voting age was lowered nationally to 18, many states reconsidered their drinking ages. Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states lowered their minimum legal drinking ages to 18, 19, or 20.

 

In the 1970s, depending on where you lived, you really could be old enough to drink at eighteen.

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1980 — MADD

On May 3, 1980, thirteen-year-old Cari Lightner was killed by a drunk driver in California. Her mother, Candace “Candy” Lightner, responded by founding Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

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MADD became one of America's most influential anti-drunk-driving organizations and helped transform public attitudes toward impaired driving.

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1984 — The National Minimum Drinking Age Act

Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, encouraging states to raise their minimum purchase and public-possession age to 21 by threatening to withhold a percentage of federal highway funds from states that refused.

 

The federal government didn't simply declare, “The drinking age is now 21.”

It essentially said:

“You can keep it lower. How attached are you to your highway money?”

Unsurprisingly, states found highway money very attractive.

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1987 — South Dakota v. Dole

South Dakota challenged the federal government's ability to tie highway funding to its drinking age. The state permitted people 19 and older to purchase beer containing up to 3.2% alcohol.

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On June 23, 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Dole that Congress could constitutionally use federal spending power to encourage states to adopt age 21.

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1988 — 21 Across All 50 States

By mid-1988, all fifty states and Washington, D.C., had adopted 21 as their minimum purchase age. South Dakota and Wyoming were the last states to comply.

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1991 — The Century Council

Leading American distillers established The Century Council, an industry-funded nonprofit focused on reducing drunk driving and underage drinking.

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It later became Responsibility.org, reflecting the industry's growing emphasis on responsible consumption.

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1999 — Jacqueline Saburido

In September 1999, Jacqueline Saburido, a 20-year-old college student, was riding home with friends near Austin, Texas, when their vehicle was struck by a drunk driver. Two of her friends were killed, and Saburido survived catastrophic burns.

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She subsequently became an internationally recognized anti-drunk-driving advocate, allowing photographs of her injuries to be used in public-awareness campaigns.

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2000s–Present — Drinking Laws Meet Technology

Modern alcohol law increasingly involves server training, dram-shop liability, stricter DUI enforcement, ignition interlocks, ID scanning, delivery-app age verification, open-container regulations, and rules governing alcohol-to-go.

Then COVID-19 turned decades of alcohol regulation sideways.

 

States temporarily allowed restaurants and bars to sell cocktails to go, deliver alcohol, and loosen other restrictions simply to keep businesses alive. Many jurisdictions liked the changes enough to make some of them permanent.

So after thousands of years of alcohol legislation, we've gone from:

“Don't kill anyone in the alehouse.”

to:

“Please upload a photo of your driver's license before we deliver your Margarita.”

Progress.