The Drinking Age in America
By law, in the United States, an 18 year old can:
- Fight, and die, for our country.
- Vote in all local, state and federal elections.
- Own a home or business.
- Give full sexual consent.
- Be tried as an adult for any crime.
- Put themselves in thousands of dollars of debt.
But, they can't drink a beer.
In 1984, President Reagan passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Although the law didn't officially move the national drinking age to 21, it withheld important highway funds from any state that didn't have their minimum age as 21. President Reagan also passed a law declaring that ice cream was a nutritious food, giving context to what he thought was good for the American people.
All of the stats prior to and after the law was signed, indicate it did help in teen driving accidents. My argument is not that teenagers are good at making decisions. My argument is about fairness. If an 18 year old is considered an adult in our country, then they should be able to make their own decision of whether or not they can/should drink. Soldiers are allowed to go overseas, fight for our country, and then come back home and can't celebrate with alcohol like any other adult 21 and over. Studies have also proven brain development and maturity levels between 18 and 21 year olds are very comparable.
In today's society younger generations use ride sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft at a much higher rate than older generations. The people who drink and drive are going to do so whether they are legally allowed to drink or not. We should focus on showing the harms of drinking and driving in our high schools rather than punish an age group that is legally allowed to do everything else. If we are serious about cracking down on the drunk driving issue in our country, we should lower the drinking age to 18 and enact a zero tolerance law for driving under the influence of alcohol.
I am a 19 year old college student and I see and participate in underage drinking quite often. The law doesn't stop 18-20 year olds from drinking and changing the legal age back to 18 wouldn't create a huge new wave of drinkers.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/15/health/science-drinking-age/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497803
As a college student I am of course biased on this issue and the opinions in this article are my own, @brianm4. Feel free to comment your opinion on this matter! And, as always, don't forget to upvote, resteem, and follow me!
It's crazy how different alcohol is treated, culturally and legally, in America compared to many European countries that don't have a legal minimum age. They can make it work well, which undermines some of the arguments Americans have against changing the legal drinking age out of a fear that it will drive some sort of cultural collapse.
I love your prospective. Obviously America is very different culturally than Europe, but I honestly don't know if much would change if it went back down to 18.
When I was 17, toward the end of the Viet Nam war, the drinking age in Michigan was changed to 18 years old. This was in part based on the idea that if you were old enough to fight and die for your country, you should be allowed to drink alcohol. That lasted about 4 or 5 years before they changed it back to 21 again.
I find it very weird that more people don't bring up the argument of an 18 year old being able to fight for our country but not come home and celebrate with a beer.
I fully agree with you. We also have the right to drink. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I felt like I had much more to say but wanted to keep it shorter for my audience's sake.
I do agree with you in supporting the lowering of the minimum age to drink. There seems to be a flawed logic in the laws of the United States when someone who is 18 years old, in many states, can purchase cigarettes but not alcohol. There are several estimations of the following, but it is believed that cigarettes cause around 450,000 deaths annually in the US, while alcohol causes around 80,000. If the laws are there to protect "still developing young adults", then allowing them to smoke seems to be just as, if not more, harmful to their bodies than drinking.
Totally agree but kind of forgot about that point since I live in California and the age for cigarettes is 21
Why do we need a drinking age at all?
Under 16, alcohol can negatively affect the growth of the brain.
That is a parenting issue, not a government one :)
Valid point lol
I completely agree with you. And people who want to get drunk, underage or not, are still going to find out ways to do so. Hell, I was buying beer from grocery stores when I was 16. There's plenty of places willing to risk getting a fine as well as potential prison sentence just to make some extra cash.
The real kicker is, I live in New York and just a few years ago they also raised the smoking age to 21. Yet, as you mentioned, these same people can go to war abroad for the country but it is illegal for them to have a smoke (at least in New York) or a drink when they come back.
Definitely. There is always gonna be a way for underage people to get alcohol. I totally understand that being in California with the same law for cigarettes. Although I've never smoked one, I would fight until my death for someone to be able to do so if they are able to die for our country.
You bring up some excellent points. I've always felt this way as well.
Thanks. It's funny how a lot of people feel this way but no politicians to my knowledge ever bring it up.
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