Step onto any college campus. Ask a freshman - are they going to a party this weekend? Will there be alcohol present? Most likely, the answer is yes. According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, almost 60 percent of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month alone. The 1984 law signed by President Reagan was passed with the understanding that the older drinking age keeps alcohol out of the hands of those younger than 21 years old. It is clear that in practice, something much different happened.

In the late 1980s, the drinking age was steadily raised from 18, to 19, to 20, to 21. The reasoning was simple: kids were abusing alcohol. Yet while the official drinking age changed, openly drinking underage did not. Drinking in the late teens is widely accepted; pop culture references to underage drinking abound. It could even be argued the societal acceptance of underage drinking has increased. Animal House, detailing the alcoholic adventures of a college fraternity, was released in 1978 to achieve remarkable popularity. Project X, a film following three high school seniors and their quest to throw an epic rager, was released in 2012 and achieved almost viral fame. If anything, the high school and college students of the country see drinking as a normal and expected aspect of their young social lives. It is an easy act of rebellion against a relatively poorly enforced law -- but the consequences can be dire.

Some may attribute the drastic decline of drunk driving over the last few decades to the higher drinking age; it was one of the primary reasons the 1984 law raising the drinking age was passed. Notably, drunk driving accidents have decreased. However, it could be argued this decline came hand in hand with the rise of campaigns fighting drunk driving, and hence an awareness of the issue developed that previously did not exist. Furthermore, legal and social repercussions of drunk driving have increased. Since the 1980’s, law enforcement has considerably cracked down on drinking and driving, while the social repercussions such as job loss have increased as well.

Many lawmakers may cite that the late adolescent brain hasn’t finished developing yet. More specifically, the frontal lobe -- the realm of decision making in the brain - hasn’t finished connecting to everything else, to put it in layman's terms. Yet, this “connection” won’t be complete until an individual is in their mid-20’s. If decision-making in these young people is impaired, why does the United States allow young adults to make life-changing decisions? By 18, one is considered a legal adult in the United States. You can get married. You can vote. You can fight and die for your country. Yet in the United States, if you’re 18, you cannot buy a beer. Seems a little arbitrary, doesn't it?

However, the key issue of the 21 minimum drinking age in the United States is it simply isn’t effective. Young people still manage to get their hands on alcohol, but they are drinking without supervision. Drinking in young people has gone underground: basement parties, open fields, fraternity houses, parents’ friends’ condos, a parking lot behind Arby’s -- these are centers for socializing with alcohol. These underground environments for drinking are dangerous. There is nobody to draw the line, except peers. If you drink in a bar, and you’ve had too much, the bartender cuts you off. If you get too rowdy, the bouncer kicks you out. If young people haven’t seen their parents or older relatives responsibly consume alcohol -- a cocktail at a party, or a glass of wine over dinner - they have no model for their own behavior with alcohol. They don’t know where, or how, to draw the line.

The older drinking age doesn’t curb underage drinking. It just pushes drinking into unregulated environments and raises the consequences.

This is the birth of binge drinking. According to the NIH, young people consume more than 90 percent of their alcohol by binge drinking. Kids are drinking without a notion of their body’s limit, and most have no formal knowledge or education on alcohol’s effect on the body. From personal experience, I had no idea what constituted a “drink” until my sorority required all members to undergo an alcohol education course. For those of you wondering -- the CDC says a drink is 12 ounces of beer (5 percent alcohol content), 8 ounces of malt liquor (7 percent alcohol content), 5 ounces of wine (12 percent alcohol content), or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof (40 percent alcohol content) distilled spirits or liquor. Another note -- it’s very unlikely you’re actually pouring anything close to these amounts in your glass. You’re probably pouring more.

As drinking goes underground, and kids drink more and more, the danger increases. The rise of binge drinking has brought on the rise of alcohol poisoning. Alcohol related deaths on college campuses have recently held the spotlight in the media. They can be epitomized in the death of a 20-year-old woman of Winona State University who passed out with her friends and never woke up. These deaths are shocking primarily because nobody even knew anything was wrong. Since young adults are drinking in underground environments, nobody cuts them off. When someone has too much, teens turn to “time-old” cures -- feed them some bread, make them drink water, have them sleep it off. These “cures” don’t do anything at all, and many times the signs of severe alcohol poisoning go unnoticed. Even if partying kids notice the signs, many may profess they are scared to get authorities involved. In response to the rise of underage drinking, the U.S. has simply increased the legal ramifications for being caught underage. Even if you call 911 out of severe concern for a friend with alcohol poisoning, you could still be cited with a Minor in Possession. An MIP, arguably one of the least severe legal consequences of underage drinking in many states, frequently results in the revoking of one’s license and community service. In response to the threat of getting caught, many kids simply don't reach out for help.

It is clear that underage drinking is a severe health hazard in the United States. I have no position on the morality of underage drinking, but I do possess a firm belief that the older legal drinking age promotes unhealthy drinking environments, habits, and creates barriers to proper education on responsible consumption of alcohol. Instead of plying harsher enforcement on teens, increase and implement proper alcohol education in public schools. In my public middle school, the alcohol education was like outdated sex ed: do it and you die. Don’t just scare teens; actually inform them about not only what alcohol does to the body, but how one can responsibly consume it. Lowering the drinking age to 18 or 19 will encourage kids to drink in places safer than someone’s uncle’s basement. If kids are consuming legally, they won’t feel as threatened when problems do arise. If they don’t think they will get in trouble, they are more likely to pick up the phone and dial 911 sooner rather than later. If the U.S. government would like to truly tackle the issue of underage drinking, they need to take another approach -- turning 21 doesn’t seem to be doing much.