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Lowering The National Drinking Age

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A legal drinking age has been set and everyone knows that it is illegal to consume or purchase alcohol until the age of 21. Many people are in agreement with this legal restriction. Some would even have to legal drinking age raised it they had their way. However, the legal drinking age sometimes causes more problems than it prevents. American legislature should recognize that alcohol consumption among youth going to take place and seek to reduce the harm of that alcohol usage, rather than unrealistically try to keep young people from drinking at all. Congress and state legislatures could enable policies, some already in effect in other countries, to promote safer consumption. The United States should not automatically attach itself to one main policy and not open itself to any other alternatives that could possibly save lives.

It is necessary to question the drinking age law. Why is twenty-one the magical number that makes a person intelligent enough or mature enough to consume alcohol? Who is to say that just because an individual is twenty-one that he or she is mature enough to consume the alcohol in a responsible manner?(Hatfield 4) Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984. The law was passed to encourage states to change their legal drinking age to 21 or suffer decreased federal funding. Congress believed that if they raised the minimum drinking age that is would save a significant number of lives. They figured that a twenty-one year old was more mature than the average eighteen year old. During an alcohol summit held in Boulder Colorado, Boulder County Sheriff George Epp said, "There's a general belief that immature people are less likely to be able to handle the effects of alcohol, so our Congress has set an arbitrary limit."(Koroknay) This number is associated with adulthood, as if the day someone turns twenty-one they automatically know what it takes and are mature enough to drink.

We all know someone under twenty-one who can drink responsibly, and some over the age of twenty-one that have no chance at ever drinking responsibly. Then why isn't the age lowered or even raised to 30 or 35? There are many teenagers who are considerably more mature than the average twenty-one year old. The legislative alcohol focus should not be on age, but rather maturity and the ability to handle it responsibly. The twenty-one age restriction seems out of date in today's society.(Hanson) Many parents of today's teenagers were allowed to drink at the age of 18. Today's teenagers face more responsibility and are treated more like adults than their parents were. If a person that is 21 is considered to be so mature, then why is eighteen considered an adult? At the age of eighteen a person can vote, serve on a jury, smoke, buy weapons, take out loans, start families, be sent to adult prison, join the army, and die for this country. If an eighteen year old can be held with so many responsibilities, then it seems unfair to say that they are not old enough to drink. There is a tremendous controversy over whether to keep the legal drinking age at twenty-one or have it lowered to the legal age of adulthood, eighteen.

Prohibiting the sale of liquor to young adults creates an atmosphere where binge drinking and alcohol abuse have become a problem. It causes rebellion among youths. Banning drinking from young people makes alcohol an enticing "forbidden fruit" of sorts. Teenagers look at drinking as something glamorous because it is an "adults only" activity. Then, in rebellion, those underage will find a way around the system.(Engs) In order to get a drink teenagers will carry fake IDs, ask someone that is of age to purchase for them or even sneak drinks from their parents liquor cabinets. This kind of devious attitude does not encourage responsible drinking. In addition, this gives young individuals the urge to drink even more when the time arises. There is kind of "Lets make up for lost time" attitude. The results are usually binge drinking and alcoholism.

The argument against changing the legal drinking age has many issues. Studies show that there was a thirteen percent decline in the number of single-car nighttime crashes among eighteen through twenty year olds after the drinking age was raised to twenty-one.(Koroknay) But there is a belief that there will always be people that drink and drive, and there is no solution that could completely prevent it. The answer is not to raise the drinking age, but rather to educate more thoroughly the dangers of drinking alcohol to the youth. The United States is one of the few countries with such a prohibitive drinking age. American teenagers, unlike European teens, do not learn to drink gradually, safely and in moderation. Researchers say American youths engage in dangerous "binge drinking" far too often and far more than European young people who learn to drink in the open. In Europe teens learn to drink regularly and responsibly, not excessively. Their alcohol abuse isn't as big of a problem. In France, Spain, and Portugal, the per-capita consumption of alcohol is greater than in the United States, but the rate of alcoholism and alcohol abuse is still lower.(Fratz) Young people learn to regard moderate drinking as an enjoyable social activity rather than something they have to sneak around and do.

Without this kind of system, college is viewed as a kind of liberation, a "safe haven" away from home. Although the legal purchase age is twenty-one, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. Under the drinking age laws kids are drinking in unsafe environments such as basement keg parties. They use the alcohol with the intention of getting drunk. If eighteen year olds do not have legal access to even a beer in a public place, they are ill equipped to deal with the responsibilities that come with drinking when they do have the right. Young people should be allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants,

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