By Eliza Kreske
The belief that the legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered is completely justified. Currently the legal drinking age in all fifty US states is 21, but the reasoning behind this is completely illogical. Once a person turns 18, the U.S. legal system proclaims them a legal adult, and they are forced to make several decisions more daunting and with more important consequences than drinking a glass of wine. Making drinking illegal for teenagers also diverts them from seeking advice or help from their parents and puts them in increasingly more danger regarding their decisions with alcohol. If we lower the drinking age, then everyone, not just teenagers who party on the weekends, benefits.
At 18, any citizen in the United States can register to vote. Having the right to vote is historically a mark of adulthood, and when someone turns 18 they can also be prosecuted as an adult, buy cigarettes, and participate in other activities, legally, that are considered only safe or necessary for adults. A number of parents thrust adult responsibility upon their children when they turn 18 - things such as paying for their own college education, their own car and their own cell phone bill. It is clear once a person turns 18 the majority of society considers them an adult, but the adult responsibility of drinking is restricted until a person turns 21 for no apparent reason. It’s not just the legal responsibility that 18 year olds feel weighing down on them; other choices presented to them are extremely challenging and will have long-lasting consequences.
As a student graduates high school they have two decisions - to attend college or simply stop their education with a high school diploma. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the fall of 2017 approximately “20.4 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities”. The bulk of these students cannot expect to have their education paid for by their parents. They are therefore left with two choices; they can either work their way through college, which is likely not possible and will diminish the quality of their education, or they can take on student loans. Because taking a financial class is not typically a requirement in high school, it is unlikely this 18 year old understands what the consequences of taking a loan are, or the best way to it off, and it is expected that they will be paying it off long into their life. This seems like a much more terrifying decision than letting a college student at a party decide between having one more beer or not. If we can trust our newly turned adults to take on $200,000 or more of debt that they will be stuck paying for the next 40 years with little idea how, then surely we can also trust them to drink responsibly. And if we can’t, making the whole activity illegal when seeking help is easiest will not improve anything.
Making drinking at a young age illegal does not discourage those underage from not drinking. In middle school alone, I can remember several incidents of students getting suspended for showing up to class drunk. Instead, teenagers who have questions about drinking, or have drank too much and don’t have a ride, are turned away from their parents. If the drinking age was lowered, younger teens might be drinking, but at least they would know they could seek help. When students go away for college, they don’t have their parents around anymore. They can’t seek help from them and they might not have even had any advice given to them beforehand. If the drinking age was lowered, the danger of younger people drinking would be countered by the help they could receive from their parents.
Contrary to a popular belief, lowering the drinking age would solve more problems than it would create. The law saying people in the United States can drink legally only at the age of 21 is ludicrous, because several other adult responsibilities and decisions are forced upon a person once they turn 18. Some may argue that drinking at a younger age will encourage reckless and dangerous behavior, but once the activity is legalized, people will be more inclined to seek help from their parents. There is absolutely no reason for the legal drinking age to be 21.
The belief that the legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered is completely justified. Currently the legal drinking age in all fifty US states is 21, but the reasoning behind this is completely illogical. Once a person turns 18, the U.S. legal system proclaims them a legal adult, and they are forced to make several decisions more daunting and with more important consequences than drinking a glass of wine. Making drinking illegal for teenagers also diverts them from seeking advice or help from their parents and puts them in increasingly more danger regarding their decisions with alcohol. If we lower the drinking age, then everyone, not just teenagers who party on the weekends, benefits.
At 18, any citizen in the United States can register to vote. Having the right to vote is historically a mark of adulthood, and when someone turns 18 they can also be prosecuted as an adult, buy cigarettes, and participate in other activities, legally, that are considered only safe or necessary for adults. A number of parents thrust adult responsibility upon their children when they turn 18 - things such as paying for their own college education, their own car and their own cell phone bill. It is clear once a person turns 18 the majority of society considers them an adult, but the adult responsibility of drinking is restricted until a person turns 21 for no apparent reason. It’s not just the legal responsibility that 18 year olds feel weighing down on them; other choices presented to them are extremely challenging and will have long-lasting consequences.
As a student graduates high school they have two decisions - to attend college or simply stop their education with a high school diploma. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the fall of 2017 approximately “20.4 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities”. The bulk of these students cannot expect to have their education paid for by their parents. They are therefore left with two choices; they can either work their way through college, which is likely not possible and will diminish the quality of their education, or they can take on student loans. Because taking a financial class is not typically a requirement in high school, it is unlikely this 18 year old understands what the consequences of taking a loan are, or the best way to it off, and it is expected that they will be paying it off long into their life. This seems like a much more terrifying decision than letting a college student at a party decide between having one more beer or not. If we can trust our newly turned adults to take on $200,000 or more of debt that they will be stuck paying for the next 40 years with little idea how, then surely we can also trust them to drink responsibly. And if we can’t, making the whole activity illegal when seeking help is easiest will not improve anything.
Making drinking at a young age illegal does not discourage those underage from not drinking. In middle school alone, I can remember several incidents of students getting suspended for showing up to class drunk. Instead, teenagers who have questions about drinking, or have drank too much and don’t have a ride, are turned away from their parents. If the drinking age was lowered, younger teens might be drinking, but at least they would know they could seek help. When students go away for college, they don’t have their parents around anymore. They can’t seek help from them and they might not have even had any advice given to them beforehand. If the drinking age was lowered, the danger of younger people drinking would be countered by the help they could receive from their parents.
Contrary to a popular belief, lowering the drinking age would solve more problems than it would create. The law saying people in the United States can drink legally only at the age of 21 is ludicrous, because several other adult responsibilities and decisions are forced upon a person once they turn 18. Some may argue that drinking at a younger age will encourage reckless and dangerous behavior, but once the activity is legalized, people will be more inclined to seek help from their parents. There is absolutely no reason for the legal drinking age to be 21.