But that is purely an artifact of the law that makes it illegal for people who have driver's licenses and voting rights to drink. That law is thoroughly bizarre and the United States has only a handful of "buddies" worldwide with the drinking age as high as 21, and most of the buddies are Muslim countries.

Among the developed countries in the West, there is only 1 (!!!) country that criminalizes drinking until such an advanced age, and it is the US. Here is the source:

Minimum Legal Drinking Ages around the World

Even Finland - a country that, like the US, has Prohibition in its history, mandates 18 as the drinking age. So we live in an oddball of a place - a non-Muslim country with that high the minimum drinking age. ??? remnants of Prohibition? other reasons? I do not know the history of this issue, but it definitely is very strange.