Why The Drinking Age Should Be Lowered To 18

At what age should an individual in the United States be able to experience the pleasure of drinking their first alcoholic beverage? Should the age remain as it is or should the United States follow the majority of the world, where 61% of 196 countries have a legal drinking age of 18-19? The continuous controversy in the United States on whether or not the mandatory legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 years of age has been ongoing for decades. The legal age to consume alcohol in the United States has varied around the country throughout the years. Once upon a time different states in America had the freedom to make laws stating the legal drinking age as low as 16 years old. Today, that law still stands, but due to the Drinking Age Act that proposed a law that stated that states who did not raise the drinking age to 21 will have their highway budget decreased by 10%, the acknowledged legal age to consume alcohol nationwide is 21 years old. Despite the legislation, underage drinking remains to be an increasing epidemic. According to a study done by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “7.7 million young people ages 12–20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month.” This being the case, a change in legislation seems not only appropriate, but a need in today’s society. The current legal age to consume alcohol in the United States should be lowered to 18 because the legal drinking age should match adulthood in the country, current mandatory legal drinking age is ineffective and counterproductive, and because lowering the drinking age would have a positive impact on younger consumers. Americans are required to wait three years after they are legally recognized as an adult at the age of 18 to purchase and consume alcohol. At this age, an individual has entered adulthood and can perform actions that are more life threatening to them than alcohol has proven to be. One of the most anticipated actions conducted at the age of 18 is the purchasing of tobacco products. Approximately 88,000 deaths in the United States per year involve the consuming of alcohol (Kaplan). However, that number still does not compare to the hundreds of thousands of deaths that the use of tobacco products is solely responsible for; while also contributing to the health issues amongst thousands of more. Another act allowed at the age of 18 is the purchasing of handguns. It is a well-known fact that a more unfortunate problem facing the youth of society in 2017 is that of gun violence. “In 2010, the second most frequent cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24 was homicide, and 83 percent of those homicides were committed with a gun” (Parsons). Above all, the most important action executed at the age of 18 is the most honorable act of them all, the act of joining the country’s military. In 2010, over 250,000 members of the United States armed forces were below the age of 21 (U.S. Department of Defense). That is hundreds of thousands of individuals that are allowed to put their life …show more content…
“By lowering the drinking age, young adults will be drawn out of private residences, fraternity houses, and dorm rooms and into more open settings like bars, where they can actually be monitored more” (Brown). Having less secretive alcohol consumption going on will prevent, or at least decrease the number of, alcohol-related accidents in younger population. “Parents increasing their children’s alcohol education, partnered with young adults drinking in safer environments, and the basic freedom to buy alcohol is enough to outweigh any potential costs to lowering the drinking age” (Brown). One of the reasons that underage drinking is so popular amongst the younger population is because of the sense of rebellion that comes with the action. If people were allowed to drink at the age of 18, the excitement that accompanies drinking for the first time would occur around family and responsible adults before one was moving away from home to attend college. Lowering the age to 18 will give this population more sense of responsibility, resulting in safer and more responsible decisions regarding alcohol