FREE ESSAY ON LOWERING THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE TO 18.

LOWERING THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE TO 18.

Lowering the Legal Drinking Age to 18
The legal drinking age in the United States is set at twenty-one years of age. I believe
that considering twenty-one as the legal age of maturity is ridiculous. Who is to say
that just because an individual is twenty-one means that they are mature enough to
consume alcohol in a responsible manner? Changing the legal drinking age to eighteen
should be enforced. Eighteen year-old individuals can take on many adult
responsibilities, but they do not have the right to consume alcohol. Many feel this is
unfair and biased. There is a tremendous controversy over whether to keep the legal
drinking age at twenty-one, or to lower it to the legal age of adulthood, 18. 
Congress passed the National Minimum Purchase Age Act in 1984. This law was passed to
encourage each state to change their legal drinking age to twenty-one years of age. The
congress believed that if they raised the minimum drinking age that it would save a
significant number of lives. They figured that a twenty-one year old person was more
mature than the average eighteen year-old. That, in my opinion, was a huge mistake. Just
because a person lives to be twenty-one does not determine how mature they are. For
example, there are many teenagers in the world that are considerably more mature than the
average twenty-one year-old. The determination of legality in drinking should not be age,
but rather maturity and ability to handle responsibility.
The twenty-one restriction seems out of date in today's society. Many parents of today's
teenagers were legally allowed to drink at the age of eighteen. Today's teenagers face
more responsibility and are treated much differently from the way their parents were
treated. If twenty-one is considered so mature, then why is eighteen considered an adult?
At the age of eighteen, an individual can vote, serve on a jury, stay out without a
curfew, leave home, drive, smoke, buy weapons, engage in financial contracts, fornicate,
start a family, be sent to adult prison, join the army, and die for this country. If an
eighteen year-old can be held to so many responsibilities, then it seems unfair to say
that they are not old enough to drink. At eighteen, a person can even have a closed
container of alcohol in their possession, but they cannot drink it. That is absurd!
Setting the legal age to purchase and consume alcohol is unrealistic in today's way of
life. Prohibiting the sale of alcohol to people under the age of twenty-one may cause
habits such as binge drinking and alcohol abuse. It just causes a rebellion. Keeping the
age at twenty-one makes it seem as if an eighteen year-old is not a real adult. Drinking
is then viewed as a glamorous activity since it is only for adults. Then, in rebellion,
those underage will just find a way around it. For example, many have fake identification
cards, steal alcohol from their parents' liquor cabinets, or even put another person in
jeopardy by asking someone whom is twenty-one to illegally purchase the alcohol for the
underage drinkers. This kind of deceitful attitude does not encourage responsible
drinking habits. In addition, this gives young individuals the urge to drink even more
when they get older so that they could make up for their so-called lost time, hence
causing alcoholism. 
The argument against changing the legal drinking age has many issues. Studies show that
there was a thirteen- percent decline in the number of single-vehicle nighttime crashes
among eighteen through twenty year-olds after the drinking age was raised to twenty-one.
I believe that there will always be people that will drink and drive, and there is
nothing anyone can do to completely stop it. The answer is not to raise the drinking age,
but rather to educate more thoroughly the dangers of drinking alcohol to the youth. The
United States is one of the few countries with such a prohibitive drinking age. In
Europe, teenagers learn how to drink gradually, not excessively. In France, Spain and
Portugal, the per capita consumption of alcohol is greater than in the United States, but
the rate of alcoholism and alcohol abuse is still lower. That is the effect of educated
and gradual drinking. 
Learning how to drink in a safe and moderate manner is more important than worrying about
the age of the individual. I believe that the arguments that were made as far as the
number of car crashes there were after the legal drinking age was raised was merely a
coincidence. People of all ages get into car accidents. Instead of restricting the
eighteen year-old adults, the government should set up ways to better educate the public
of the dangers and responsibilities that come with drinking. The arguments against
lowering the age of the National Minimum Purchase Age Act are insufficient compared to
the benefits of having the drinking age changed to eighteen. Since the number twenty-one
has no real basis of maturity, the government should have kept the legal drinking age
where it was and kept the public educated rather than taking a right away from the adults
under the age of twenty-one.