by J.J. Thompson

About the author: At the time this viewpoint was written, J.J. Thompson was an associate editor of U.S. News & World Report.

Jason McCray remembers drinking shots at JB’s in Tallahassee, Florida, but after that the details of his 21st birthday fade. The college senior knows from photos his buddies took that, several pubs later, he forced down double shots of whiskey and later vomited under the bar. (They got photos of that, too.) “They had to carry me out,” he says.

Thus ended McCray’s Tennessee Waltz, a coming-of-legal-age ritual in which Florida State University students celebrate turning 21 with a free drink, in addition to those bought by friends, at each of the half-dozen or so bars along Tennessee...