Lower The Drinking Age To 18

For the past few years, the United States’ has had a long and hard debate about what age is a person old enough to control their own alcohol intake. All of these debates have led to the legal drinking age to be set at 21. This current law is a perfect example of a rule with unrealistic expectations and unintended consequences. The ongoing policy that the United States has in effect punishes the youth who consume alcohol when they are younger than 21 years of age. Young adults are going to drink under the legal age, so why should the United States not lower the drinking age to 18? The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 because at age 18 you are considered an adult and mature enough to make the right decisions.
There are several reasons …show more content…
Raising the drinking age to 21 was to try and help prevent teenagers from drinking while intoxicated and taking away or suspending their license do not stop them from driving drunk. ("Daniel Sutter: To Serve and to Be Served"). Drinking and driving is a major problem in the United States because when 18 year olds go and drink with their friends without their parents’ knowledge, it prevents them from being able to call them when they need a ride home. This leads to them telling themselves that they only had a couple drinks and can make it home safely because they do not live that far. In most cases, that is not true. A lot of those teens actually had too much to drink and should not be getting into a vehicle. Unfortunately, cops are not superheroes. They cannot catch every single teenager that is drinking and driving. This could all be prevented if the drinking age was lowered to 18 because then those very drunk 18 year olds would be able to call their parents for a ride home and that would prevent multiple crashes from happening. Some States agree with the fact that the drinking age is too high. California is going to start collecting signatures to allow 18 to 20 year olds to legally buy and consume alcohol. ("Proposed California Ballot Initiative That Would Lower Drinking Age to 18 Cleared to Collect Signatures"). The man who proposed this bill claims that the whole thing is about equal rights. He believes that if …show more content…
College presidents have always had an issue with sharing their concern for the abuse of alcohol on campuses. The drinking age has prevented them from discussing the issue because students should not be drinking alcohol in the first place and will most definitely not admit to doing it, when trouble comes around (Dart 16). The majority of college students, cannot consume alcohol but some can which leads them to host parties. At these parties, underage drinkers consume all the alcohol they want, and when something happens to them, they very rarely get help in time (Allen D01). If the drinking age were to be lowered to 18 then almost all college students would be capable of consuming alcohol legally. With the age lowered, college presidents would have the ability to talk to their students about drinking safely. The lowering of the age would encourage discussion between staff and students at college campuses. Students would then trust the staff and not be afraid to go to them for help if it was ever needed. The difference between getting into a college and getting alcohol from a college, is that one is way easier than the