Should Drinking Age Be Lowered To 18?

Since 1987, it has been argued that the legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered to 18 so that young adults are allowed to drink in certain environments. This argument has many sides which can be argued. At 18, you are considered an adult. You can vote, charged with adult crimes, and even die for your country, but you cannot consume alcohol. To me that is discriminating against people in the age group of 18-20. As of now, adults over 21 years old are allowed to drink in places such as restaurants, bars, and some other controlled environments. Adults over the age of 21 could work to be seen as role models and promote responsible drinking. They could teach younger adults about the affects of alcohol and how it can affect your ability to function properly. Sensible drinking and responsibility would eventually be seen.
Even though you must be 21 years old to legally purchase alcohol, a large portion of college students under 21 consume alcohol on a regular basis. This is because
drinking by underage adults is seen as a way to rebel against authority and is seen as a fun social activity where everyone can have fun. As a country, we have tried to pass prohibition legislation twice in the past trying to control irresponsibility with drinking. These two times were during the state prohibition in the 1850's and the National Prohibition during the 1920's. These laws were finally revoked because we were unable to enforce them and the public uproar towards them caused other social problems. We are repeating history today and making the same mistakes we made in the past. Prohibition did not work then and with as rebellious and as crazy as young adults are now prohibition will not work for people under the age of 21.
Underage drinking and disobedience of the current drinking laws is seen all over many university campuses. Adults that are under the age of 21 are more likely to drink heavily on a regular basis. For example, roughly 25% of all university students under the age of 21 are heavy drinkers. This compares to roughly 20% of adults over 21 years old. As for adults in general, 35% of under age adults are heavy drinkers, compared to 25% of legal age adults. Research from the 1980s until the present has shown a continuous decrease in drinking and driving related problems. However, these declines started in 1980 before the National 1987 law was passed that prohibited anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing alcohol. The decrease in drinking and driving problems has been the result of many things that were not related to the rise in the legal age of alcohol purchase or the decreased average amount of alcohol consumed by the average adult. Some of these factors included the introduction of the designated driver, increased use and awareness of seat belt and air bags, safer automobiles, lower speed limits, and free taxi services from places where drinking is allowed.
Even though there has been a decrease in the average consumption of alcohol and motor vehicle crashes, there has been an increase of other problems that go along with binge and irresponsible drinking.
Most of the reported behaviors showed little to no change until after the legal drinking age was raised in 1987. To prove this, 45% of students reported vomiting after drinking from 1982 to 1987. After the 1987 law change, over 50% of adults reported throwing up. A substantial increase other college related variables increased. Leaving class early after a night of drinking jumped from 10% to almost 15%. Missing class due to being hung-over went from 25% to 30%. Students receiving lower grades because of drinking rose from 5% to 10%. These increases in abusive and irresponsible drinking are due to privately drinking in student dorms and apartments where individuals would gather and play drinking games and proceed to get drunk while outside of adult
supervision.
Based upon the realization that our current prohibition laws are not working, the need for alternative approaches need to be experimented with. In many foreign and ancient cultures, which have few drinking related problems, all share some common beliefs. There is little or no social pressure to drink and irresponsible behavior due to alcohol is never tolerated. Young people learn from their parents at home and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner. Due to the 21 year old drinking age law not working, and being counterproductive, it would be wise for us as a nation to change our current prohibition law and to teach responsible drinking techniques for those who chose to consume alcoholic beverages. All in all, I believe that both side of argument could come to a mutual agreement based on several factors. The drinking and purchasing age should be lowered to 18 but they are only allowed to drink in certain places until they reach the age of 21. This means the alcohol is to be concealed when transporting, and drank in the privacy of their living quarters, bars, or restaurants. Drinking in public places such as university events and football would still be restricted to adults over the age of 21. In addition to being allowed to drink in certain places, they must take a course about alcohol awareness so that they know the dangers of excessively drinking and the affects it can have on everyone around you. Based upon that criterion, I believe that is an acceptable common ground on which everyone could be happy and neither of sides of the argument is stronger than the other.