Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?

The Law of Drinking Needs a Change for the USA

When you turn 18, you receive the rights of
adulthood which includes being able to vote, smoke cigarettes in some states, join the military, get married, and be prosecuted as adults, yet you can not drink a beer, nor have a glass of wine.  Since 18 is the age of adulthood in the United States, we as adults should be allowed to make the decision regarding alcohol consumption.  John McCardell, former President of Middlebury College in Vermont believes that having the drinking age set to 21 has caused a problem in extreme drinking on college campuses which pose a dangerous threat and harm to the college students.  John McCardell has started a movement dedicated to lowering the age back to 18, because he believes that it will make kids safer.  The drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 because being 18 is the age of adulthood in the United States, it would lower the drunk driving percent rate in our country, and lowering the drinking age would be good for the economy.

The Age of Adulthood

In the United States turning eighteen years old is a sign of adulthood, and the laws in our country allow our eighteen year old adults the right to be able to drive, as well as perform jury duty and sign a contract, as well as join the military.  Yet there is still a law which deny's eighteen year old adults the right to purchase, posses or consume alcohol.  Due to this law, our young adults still find various ways to find alcohol and consume it excessively known as binge drinking, which has severe side effects, including many young adults over drinking to the point where they need to get there stomach pumped from alcohol poisoning.  It is truly unfair that the government thinks its perfectly fine to allow this kind of behavior.  Camille Paglia, an American Social Critic wrote an article called "The Drinking Age is Past Its Prime" in which she writes, "What this cruel 1984 law did is deprive young people of safe spaces where they could happily drink cheap beer, socialize, chat and flirt in a free but controlled public environment.  Hence in the 1980's we immediately got the scourge of crude binge drinking at campus fraternity keg parties, cut off from the adult world"(Paglia).  Camille Paglia and many others feel that learning to drink responsibly is part of growing up, and having that start at such an age as 21 is too far off in the education bracket that we should pull it back to 18.  Many people think its is okay for the military to go to schools and recruit young adults who they believe are to young to drink but are responsible enough and mature enough to hold a gun and kill other people at war. This is a totally obscene stand point and if they are allowed to hold a gun and go to war, then they should be allowed the right to consume alcohol.   Young eighteen year old adults go out of there way to underage drink, because they still see it as there right to be able to drink, considering by our governments standards that they are in fact adults.

Lower Drunk Driving Accidents

Drunk Driving is a huge issue in our country and the age with the highest percentage of drivers in fatal crashes with high blood-alcohol content is the age group of 21 to 24.   The main reason is because of the increase of binge drinking.  Even though binge drinking starts at 18, it continues into the age of 21 and older because it becomes so integrated in there minds that they need to drink a lot and drink fast that even when they become 21 and have the ability to purchase alcohol, they still process to binge drink.  If the drinking age was 18, we would be able to educate our young adults better about the dangers of drinking, and allow them to drink in safe and controlled environments much more, which would help lower the drunk driving accident percentage in our country.   Since more 21 year old's died in alcohol related crashes then any other age group, our 18 year old adults should have a chance to prove themselves that they are also responsible to handle the situation of being able to have a drink but stay off the streets. As you can see from the graph, the age group of 21 to 25 is much higher then the rest of the age groups, and while the age group of 18 to 20 is still high, it is most likely due to the negative side effect of binge drinking, but if the drinking age was lowered to 18, binge drinking would begin to disappear.  While drunk driving occurs in all age groups, if the drinking age was lowered to 18, it would allow our law enforcement to focus on drunk driving more, then to focus on underage drinking.

Drinking can help the Economy of our Country

There are many reasons as to why lowering the drinking age to 18 would be a positive effect for our nations economy.  If the drinking age was lowered, more people would be able to drink in bars, and restaurants which would increase revenue for private business owners.  It would also be good for the government because they would be able to save money because currently we are spending a ton of money on underage drinking law enforcement, which is not really working to begin with because its incredibly hard to control.  On a similar note, ever since Marijuana has been legalized in Colorado, Colorado's economy has been much better, to the point where the legalization of cannabis has practically paid for Colorado's school system. This is a similar positive effect we would have by lowering the drinking age to 18 in our country because we would have more people having the ability to drink, in safe, and controlled establishments such as an Applebees or TGI fridays restaurant's where you can drink safely and they are able to control how much you drink, compared to a college frat party where it is a free for all, where our young adults drink as much as they want without a limit.  Tyler Pennett writes an article called "Should the U.S lower the drinking age to 18?" in which he states many reasons as to why it would benefit the economy.  Pennett says "The tax dollars generated from this new audience (18 year old adults) could also be used to better the United States in a number of ways. For example, the government could fund more programs to teach kids the dangers of alcohol use. A good idea would be to have every 18-year-old attend a mandatory alcohol abuse class funded by the tax dollars generated by the new law"(Pennett).   This is a great idea, because it would allow our young adults to drink at 18 and help raise more money for our economy while also teaching and warning our adults more about the dangers of alcohol use, which would allow them to hopefully drink more responsibly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the United States should lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 due to the effects of being able to help our economy flourish, and help lower the issue of binge drinking and drunk driving, and to finally give our young adults the right they deserve to be considered an adult.  If an 18 year old can go to jail, join the military, and be able to do so much more adult orientated activities, then they deserve to be able to purchase, possess, and consume alcohol.













Sources:

Camille Paglia: The Drinking Age Is Past Its Prime. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://time.com/72546/drinking-age-alcohol-repeal/

Colorado Pot Tax Revenue Nearly Doubles in One Year. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://time.com/4003262/colorado-pot-revenue/

Should the U.S lower the drinking age to 18? (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.personal.psu.edu/afr3/blogs/siowfa13/2013/12/should-the-us-lower-the-drinking-age-to-18.html

The Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-debate-on-lowering-the-drinking-age/