Drinking Age

Faheem Khan
Mrs. Farley
2/27/13
Drinking Age The drinking age in America should be lowered to 18 from 21. Most kids who are between the ages of 18-20 already drink behind closed doors. When a person turns the age of 18 they are able to accomplish and are able to do many things, so why can they not drink? Over a thousand lives are lost each year by people under the age of 21 from drinking. If people are already drinking now before they even reach 21, and there are no laws enforcing on to them that they cannot drink in parties or in private; why not just lower the drinking age so no more smuggling is required. It is recorded in the article “Yes, the U.S. legal drinking age should be lowered” by John McCardell that 95% of alcohol consumers have their first drink before the age of 21. Also, 75% of high school seniors, 60% of high school sophomores, and 40% of 8th graders have already consumed alcohol. 8th Grade, not even in high school yet, are already drinking alcohol. We can conclude from this that current laws are ineffective and are not enforced hard enough to prevent these kids from drinking. Since no one is really enforcing the law, kids just go ahead into parties and begin to drink without anyone noticing. When a person turns 18 they are able serve in a jury, sign a contract, and be responsible for one’s debts. If they can do all that, then why can they not drink? Many young adults find this inability to drink impossible to understand. They should consider the fact why at the age one 18 one is able to exercise all other adult responsibilities except for drinking. Therefore, the age limit of 21 for drinking is usually evaded and many kids began to start drinking at an early age. They believe that simply raising the drinking age to 21 should eliminate drunk driving, but here we are having drunk driving crashes everyday with people who are 21 and above. Should they not rise the age to 25 then? Well the logic breaks down somewhere in between and it should be noted that lowering the drinking age to 18 would be stopping many of the illegal things that happen behind doors. About five thousand lives are lost each year by kids under the age of 21. Out of these deaths 60% happen off highways. Alcohol takes a much greater toll off the highways. Yet no one in the state houses are willing to debate for the drinking age as long as the highway fund penalty is in place. Lives today under the age of 21, in increasing numbers, are being put at risk because of underage drinking. The federal government should seriously consider lowering the drinking the age to 18 to prevent many of these deaths. Although 77% of America supports stricter penalties to underage drinking and the fact that it should not be lowered; one must first consider the fact that 50% of 18-20 year olds consume alcohol everyday without any penalties or punishment. This is simply because they go and drink in locked dorm rooms, off-campus apartments, and even farm fields where people cannot see them. Let’s face it, even if we were to make the penalties harsher, people always find a way to get around it. What are you suppose to do if these kids just go an ask someone older to buy the drinks for them and then they go to a private party and drink their? Law enforcements would not know what is going nor would they walk into a private party and start to arrest random people that they believe are underage drinkers. One can now see that making the drinking age 18 would actually benefit many and would minimize illegal activities in the US. One may now conclude that lowering the drinking age to 18 would be the only rational thing to do at this point. Since so many kids under the age of 21 are consuming alcohol almost every day as well as dying from it; people should really consider making the drinking age 18. When a kid turns 18 they are given many privileges so why is drinking not one of them? When a person turns 18 they begin to be treated like an adult as we see in commercials that one must be at least 18 to order anything from a television advertisement. If that is possible then they should also be allowed to drink. Almost over five thousand people are killed every day from alcohol, 40% under 21 and 60% off highway roads. Alcohol is a reality in the lives of young adults today, we can try to change reality which in the end has just simply failed, or we can create the safest possible environment for this reality and that is only by lowering the drinking age to 18.