Drinking Age

Is the Drinking Age Fair?

At the age of eighteen, the government will grant a minor certain rights to marry, to vote, and to join the service. According to their standards, eighteen year olds are considered adults, yet these “adults” can not walk into a local bar to get a drink for another three years. Some restaurants and bars even turn these “minor adults” away after a certain time. How is this fair if the government expects these teens to take full responsibility for all of their actions, yet they refuse to allow them full privileges?

To introduce this argument, one must know some history. President Nixon supported that “if an 18- year old was eligible to be drafted into military service and sent overseas to fight for the U.S, he/she should also be able to help decide the leadership of this countryвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ This right lead to many others. In 1971 the 26th amendment was added to the constitution which lowered the voting age to eighteen. Following that amendment, the government proceeded to lower the drinking age. Minors gained the right to purchase and consume hard liquor, in contrast to the past where they could only drink beer and wine (Kauffman).

There are many disagreements on whether the drinking age should remain or be changed. The main defending group is called MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving). Supporters argue that the drinking age should remain for the shear fact that car crashes have decreased between the ages of eighteen and twenty since 1984. According to medical charts, the human brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty- one; therefore, underage drinking could cause brain damage to any minor consuming it. Another main argument that MADD makes is that if eighteen year olds were allowed the consumption of alcohol, then what would stop them from bringing it to school and passing it on to under classmen (Minimum drinking age)? Even though many of these are good points, the main focus has been and still is drunk driving, because it not only involves those who are drinking and driving, but also the innocent lives on the road.

In contrast to the supporters, many argue that not allowing minors to drink causes them to go behind officials backs in private, while consuming large amounts in a very short period of time. In my opinion, this type of drinking could be the main factor for brain damage in many minors. Critics also argue that society has made forbidding alcohol to minors similar to the forbidden fruit theory, “lawmakers have inadvertently romanticized it, causing teenagers to want to drink even moreвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ The drinking age like many other laws, should be specific to the state itself, which leads to my point of the rights and responsibilities that the government gives those at eighteen years old. The government expects an average eighteen year old to defend their country, or get married, or vote for the president or state representatives, yet they don’t trust a “minor” to be responsible enough to handle themselves in an alcohol related experience (Minimum Drinking Age).

Through research I have discovered that almost every country has a minimum drinking age, but America is the only one that requires you to be twenty- one. For example, Europe allows anyone eighteen and older to consume alcohol. In France and Italy the age is sixteen, followed by Switzerland which allows a child at the age of fourteen to drink beer and wine, but no hard liquors. Drunk driving occurs everywhere, but as these countries have tested and found, children are learning to be responsible with alcohol and vehicles for two reasons: One, it is allowed so it cancels out the “forbidden fruit theory” and two, minors are able to drink before they can drive, meaning by the time they are