The Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

In the fall of 2008, over one hundred presidents from colleges such as Dartmouth, Virginia Tech, and Duke all signed a declaration that concluded that the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen (cbsnews.com). This sparked a huge and heated debate that is still going on seven years later. Being a largely debated topic, there are multiple angles presents for both those for and against lowering the legal drinking age. While it is at times a very emotionally charged argument, the facts are here to speak for themselves on the matter.
Before this topic can be argued, a timeline of sorts is needed to explain everything. It starts off with Congress decided to lower the age in which someone could vote from twenty-one to eighteen,
It will result in more revenue for business and much more tax revenue. Many argue that even though we have raised the drinking age to twenty-one, it does not stop underage drinking (ssdp.org). While it was argued in the cons of lowering the drinking age it would promote unsafe drinking habits, it is argued on the pro side that people twenty-one and up are more likely to binge drink on their own. “Binge drinking peaks among 21- to 25-year-olds at 45.9%, while the binge drinking rates of those aged 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, and 18-20 are 1.5%, 7.8%, 19.4%, and 35.7% respectively,” a pro con article states (drinkingage.procon.org). They will do it without adult supervision seeing as they are their own caretaker at that point typically, they can drink more than they should. If one is eighteen and drinking, they are more likely to be supervised on their alcohol consumption. Dwight B. Heath, a Brown University anthropology professor, claims that “the younger people start to drink the safer they are” (cnn.com). “Alcohol has no mystique. It's no big deal. By contrast, where it's banned until age 21, there's something of the 'forbidden fruit' syndrome,” he continues (cnn.com). Growing up, kid are introduced to alcohol through the D.A.R.E program which they drill into youth the harmful effects of consuming alcohol. This creates a fear and a misunderstanding with when the time comes to handle alcohol, how to
They are more likely to be supervised and it just makes sense, at least to me. If we are allowed to go to war, get married, vote, and buy cigarettes, it makes no sense that we cannot drink alcohol at eighteen as well. We tell men and women to sign up for the military and risk their lives each day, but heaven forbid they consume alcohol. They say welcome to adulthood at eighteen, risk your life, get married, enjoy a smoke or two, but do not touch any alcohol because that is a huge no no. Part of me wanted to be against lowering the drinking age because I’ve seen how alcohol has affected my childhood and family. Then I realized that was due to poor education on alcohol consumption that members of my family did not know how to or when to stop. The taboo and mystic around alcohol created it as more of a “challenge accepted” than a discouraged thing. It makes more sense in my head to allow someone at eighteen consume alcohol if they are told that they can do all these other monumental tasks in