Currently, U.S. law prevents 20 year olds from drinking champagne at their own wedding. The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 and young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, bars, pubs and school and university functions, and weddings. The U.S. has the strictest youth drinking laws; however, it has the most youth drinking-related problems. There seems to be a connection between these two facts (Ford).
Even though the legal drinking age is 21, young college and high school students who are under this age still consume alcohol irresponsibly. This is because drinking by underage kids is seen as “rebellion against authority," “badass,” or a representation of "adulthood”. In other words, a lot of people get a thrill out of the fact that drinking is illegal.
In the 1920’s, National Prohibition was repealed because it was unenforceable and because revolt towards the laws created additional social problems (“The Lower”). This is the same case as today. The federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that in 2005, the most recent year for which complete results are available, 85 percent of 20-year-old Americans reported that they had used alcohol (Johnson). Prohibition for people under the age of 21 isn’t effective now, as it wasn’t back then.
The United States drinking laws are dissimilar to nearly all other countries’. In Portugal and New Zealand there are no minimum drinking age requirements. In Belgium, parts of Canada, Italy, and Spain, citizens who are sixteen years old may consume in restaurants when they are with parents or another adult. Australia and South Africa have an 18-year minimum. Young people in France, Spain, and Argentina hardly ever abuse alcohol (Johnson). They learn how to drink from their families, who views drinking as being normal. Kids within these societies rarely embarrass themselves by abusing alcohol.
Justin Schmid, a 21 year old student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, told Fox News, “It’s one of the stupidest laws in America.” He went on to say that "You can be drafted by your country, go to war, yet you can't have a beer. You can be tried as an adult, yet you can't have a beer (Pope)." In addition, you can become addicted to cigarettes, drive cars, and vote for a president, yet you STILL can’t have a beer.
Moana Jagasia, a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower, said reducing the age in America would be helpful. "There isn't that much difference in maturity between 21 and 18," she said. "If the age is younger, you're getting exposed to it at a younger age, and you don't freak out when you get to campus (Pope)."
Even college presidents, from about 129 of the nation’s best known colleges, are asking lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age to 18. Colleges like Duke, Dartmouth, Ohio State, Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon, Morehouse, and Middlebury say that they would benefit from lowering the age. “This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory (Pope)." Banning alcohol consumption from students under 21 only makes the problem worse. The existing law that sets the drinking age at 21 does not prevent a single college student from getting alcohol if he or she wants it. If the drinking age were changed to 18, colleges would be able to regulate alcohol use, so that students would not become overly intoxicated. This would cut down on the number of college campus alcohol-related deaths, since campus officials or police would be able to better monitor alcohol use.
Lowering the drinking age to 18 would let younger students socialize more with older students, allowing older students to model mature social drinking behavior. Also, when drinking is legal, it takes place in the open, where it can be supervised by police, security guards and even health-care workers. Not a lot of people are going to want make a fool out of themselves in public. With the higher drinking age, the consumption is moved underground, to cars, homes, or frat-house basements, where there is no supervision. That is where things go wrong.
Arguments about drinking and driving and accident statistics are not important in the drinking age debate. Though there are legitimate concerns about driving under the influence and other potential harms of poor decision making by an individual, the key words are "poor decision making" and "individual". It is the individual's responsibility to practice good decision making in regards to their own safety. There may be separate issues about responsibility, but not the drinking age.
The United States legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. Young adults should be prepared to make responsible decisions. Alcohol education should be promoted and taught at an early age. Drinking and driving should be seen and treated as absolutely unacceptable in all communities and the penalties for doing so should be more severe. Along with these actions, young people should demand the law be changed. Older people should support them, and U.S. leaders should listen and act out of best interest by reducing the drinking age to 18.
