The United States of America currently has a drinking age minimum of 21 years old. This upsets a lot of people, while some people are happy about it. Both sides have good points, but which one is right? Well, the U.S.A does not have any plans to change the drinking age to 21 anytime soon, even though they are one of the very few countries that do not allow people to drink at 18. Technically, the drinking age wasn’t forcefully changed, but when it was passed it required all states to change the legal drinking age to 21 or they would lose 10% of their federal highway funding. The states couldn’t afford to lose all that money so they were left with no choice but to agree to the new age. There were many reasons why the United States raised the age to 21, but there were many valid reasons that supported the original drinking age of 18. This is what causes the drinking age to be so controversial.
Many people believe that ever since the drinking age was changed to 21, it did not reduce drinking as much as people would expect. Similar to the Prohibition, if you take away the right to drink, people are going to figure out ways to do it anyway illegally. Raising the drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking- it’s merely driven it underground, to the riskiest of settings: unsupervised high school blowouts and fraternity parties. Everyone in High School wants to be invited to parties, and at these parties there is always alcohol. I’ve been there, we’ve all been there. The hype for alcohol at a young age is huge. It may be because it is illegal for them and gives them a thrill. A lot of these people also want to keep this from their parents. If the drinking age was lowered to 18, people would not be as excited to drink, because they legally can. Because the drinking age is 21, it causes teens leading up to that age to think of it as something ‘unreachable’, and enticing while if the drinking age was younger, and alcohol was just an everyday aspect of life, it causes the temptation and hype of alcohol to vanish. The younger the drinking age, the more responsible they can be. 18 year olds no longer have to keep drinking from their parents, because they are legally drinking. Being able to legally drink at 18 would allow young people to learn how to drink in moderation and more sensibly. Families may allow kids to drink “casually” at dinner or family events if it is legal for them, which will show them that you should not just be drinking for the sole purpose to get drunk. 18, 19, and 20 year olds are able to make their own decisions, and should be granted full rights, which is how it used to be. During the Vietnam War, however, nearly every state embraced the principle that a person old enough to serve in the military should have the full rights of citizenship. Lowering the drinking age to 18 may help turn people into smart drinkers. They will not have to hide drinking and partying from their parents, and will feel more comfortable asking for rides from parties which should reduce drunk driving accidents.
Drunk driving is a huge problem with our young generations, and even our older. People think they are not as drunk as they think they are and get behind the wheel. This can easily be prevented by arranging a ride home, walking, asking a designated driver, or calling your family. Your family would rather be woken up late at night to you drunk needing a ride rather than a different phone call. Drunk driving puts you at risk, your passengers at risk, and innocent people at risk around you. How can we prevent this? Well, since the United States has raised the drinking age, this problem still occurs. These drinking age reductions were followed by increases in motor vehicle fatalities, which were documented by numerous researches at the time. This is probably once again due to the fact that young people are hiding drinking from their family. They might not feel comfortable asking for a ride home from a party, and just think nothing will happen to them. Drinking alcohol can effect your health and it has an even bigger negative effect when you are young. Heavy drinking is associated with negative social, mental, and physical health outcomes. Brain development can be completed by age 25, and binge drinking during your teenage years can have a large effect on your brain. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain looks and works. If teenagers could legally drink at 18 it would cause them to negatively impact the parts of the brain that are still developing.
The drinking age controversy has been an argument in the United States for quite some time now. Both sides seem to have good points. If you’re pro-18, you are in favor of 18 year olds being treated like adults. If alcohol is legal and offered at a younger age, this may cause less of a hype for alcohol and make teenagers feel more comfortable and more likely to ask for rides from parties which will decrease drunk driving. If you’re pro-21, you believe keeping the drinking age high will reduce drunk driving related accidents and it will save a lot of young people health wise. America is just one out of a few countries that have a drinking age of 21, and I believe this controversy will be going on for a long time because both sides have strong arguments.
