Raising Or Lowering The Drinking Age

It is legal for eighteen year-olds to die for their country, it is legal for eighteen year-olds to marry, and it is legal for eighteen year-olds to vote. Why then isn't it legal for eighteen year-olds to drink? I don't think that is right, and I believe that the drinking age in the United States should be lowered from twenty one years of age, to eighteen.

For the most part, the drinking age does not deter young people from drinking. Studies have shown that lowering the legal age slightly increases the frequency that people drink, but not the number of people who drink; people who do not drink before the legal age is lowered do not drink afterward. (Wechsler 142) What it does do, however, is push young people to find places to drink where they won't be caught. Often this means drinking out in the woods at a hunting camp, or drinking around a bonfire in the middle of a field. I think it would make more sence for them to be able to drink supervised, in a bar or club, where there is less danger for injury.

Another reason I think that the drinking age should be lowered is because it pushes young people to find alternatives to drinking. Often these alternatives are recreational drugs and narcotics. Many of these drugs are more addictive than alcohol, and most of these drugs are more dangerous. I think most adults would rather have their young people drink a glass of beer than shoot up.

Many people think that the drinking age should stay at twenty one. These people believe that people under the age of twenty one are not mature enough to handle the responsibility that comes with drinking. The answer to that is that there are many examples of immature adults in all age groups. I agree that there are some eighteen and nineteen year-olds that are barely mature enough to cross the street by themselves, but if you look in almost any newspaper you will probably find articles about forty year-olds who can't be trusted to do even that. The fact is, most nineteen and twenty year-olds are either risking their lives for their country in the armed forces, working to support themselves or a family, or are under the pressure of earning a higher education. These people certainly demonstrate enough responsibility for them to have a ...