Legal Drinking Age

Legal Drinking Age

In the U.S., when you reach 18 years of age, you are legally an adult. Your new rights allow you to vote, join the military, obtain a marriage permit, sign legally binding contracts and many others except purchase and consume alcohol. Many feel this is the best reason for lowering the drinking age. I want to take a different approach at the issue; I think the legal drinking age should be lowered to allow young adults to drink under supervision in controlled environments such as restaurants, taverns, pubs and official school and university functions. We should allow drinking under supervision at an early age, because this teaches and develops more responsible acts of drinking. In these situations responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs, this would develop mature and sensible drinking behavior. As we teach more responsible drinkers, then we can correct our current problem of abusive drinking. The drinking age is to youth today, what the Jim Crow laws was to blacks in the Old South. This law segregates our youth, while it is meant to protect society.

Everyone knows that it is illegal to consume alcohol until the age of 21. Many people are in agreement with this legal restriction. Some would even say that it should be raised. However, the legal drinking age sometimes causes more problems than it prevents. First, it is necessary to question this law. Why is 21 the magical age that makes one intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? We all know some people under 21 who can drink responsibly, and some over 21 with no hope of ever drinking responsibly,. Why isn't the limit 18 or 35 or 40? This seemingly arbitrary number is associated with adulthood, as if the day a person turns 21 they know everything and are mature. The drinking age used to be 18 in some states. Many parents of today's teenagers were legally allowed to drink at 18. Today's teenagers face more responsibility and are treated more like adults than their parents were. This makes the 21 restriction seem out of date. At 18, people are considered adults. It is the opinion of many people whose sites I visited that if it is legal for 18 year olds to drive cars, fly planes, vote, marry, pay taxes, take out loans and risk their lives in the armed forces then it should be legal for them to drink a glass of champagne at their own wedding. I also am in agreement with this statement. Today's legal drinking age is unrealistic. Prohibiting the sale of liquor to young adults creates an atmosphere where binge drinking and alcohol abuse have become a problem. Banning drinking for young people makes alcohol a tantalizing forbidden fruit. Teenagers look at drinking as something glamorous. It is viewed as an adult activity; and teenagers want to be adults as soon as possible. In order to get a drink, teenagers will carry fake I.D.s, ask legal drinkers to buy for them or sneak drinks from their parents' liquor cabinets. This kind of devious attitude does not encourage responsible drinking.

Furthermore, when the opportunity to drink arises, there is a kind of let's make up for lost time attitude. The result is binge drinking. The drinking age should be lowered to 18. With the focus on education about safe drinking instead of restriction, many problems would be averted. American teenagers, unlike European teens, do not learn how to drink gradually, safely and in moderation. There alcohol abuse isn't as big of a problem. This comes from educated and gradual drinking. Young people learn to regard moderate drinking as an enjoyable social activity rather than as something they have to sneak around to do. Without this kind of system, college is viewed as a kind of liberation. If 18 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. I also think the drinking age should be lowered because the current age has no real basis. With a lowered drinking age, fewer problems will be present. The Boulder County Alcohol Summit came up with no concrete action plan but they seemed to agree that we need to teach responsible drinking, not forbid teens from drinking. The problems, which make a drinking age limit necessary, are better solved through a lowered drinking level and more education on responsible drinking.

Those who advocate a higher drinking age are stuck behind two philosophies. One locally, and one nationally. Locally, a concern for irresponsibility can be observed. Meanwhile nationally, a concern for driving while intoxicated is expressed. The proponents of elevated drinking ages personally cite their own irresponsibility and inability to handle alcohol, while never being explicit as to actions occurring, to make the point that their own problems will shift to those of a lower age if the drinking ages fall below their current status. This argument makes three assumptions; a shift will occur, bad things will happen, and the youth will be worse off as a result. There is no data suggesting that this will happen, only sketchy assumptions. The second assumption