There is a giant debate on what the legal minimum drinking age should be in the United States. Many people think that it should remain at 21 years old and others believe that it should be lowered to 18. While both have their own various reasons, this has been an important topic in our country for a long time. President Ronald Reagan signed and passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Law in 1984 which obligated states to raise their legal drinking age to 21 or suffer reductions in Federal highway funds.
The highway funds and drinking age was linked together by the young lives lost on our highways. Even though this was a satisfactory reason to raise the drinking age there are still more reasons to why it should be 18. Despite what most people thought, the government used the tactic involving highway funds to try to create a uniform national drinking age. (“60-Second Debate”). One reason that people want the drinking age to stay higher is because they want to prevent drunk driving.
Statistics show that drunk driving was the leading cause of death among teens. Teens are involved in 21 percent of alcohol-related traffic deaths in America and are 10 percent of licensed drivers. Research has shown that after raising the drinking age, there was a decrease of 47 percent in alcoholrelated deaths among teen drivers from 1988 to 1995. Some of these deaths resulted in drunk driving across “blood borders” where teens would drive to other states where the legal drinking age was lower than the state they lived in.
The government pressured the states into losing certain highway funds because they wanted to prevent this by having the same raised drinking age for all states. Drunk driving is already an extremely dangerous problem, but with teens driving even longer distances to buy alcohol makes it even worse (“60Second Debate”). Another major argument is that the younger the person is who consumes alcohol, the more dependent they could become on it. This means that the person feels as if they need alcohol every so often to function normally.
It can create a psychological dependence which is where the user believes that they need it or a physiological dependence can occur and their body will chemically crave alcohol. Another name for this problem is alcoholism, another major issue in America alongside drunk driving. Many people try to go to therapy to help get rid of their dependency to better their lives. Alcohol slows reflexes and thought process tremendously, which can lead to bad decisions such as abuse, drunk driving, or risky sexual activity.
Many families have been broken up by alcoholism and the effects it has on people. There are many cases in which many married couples had to leave their significant other for the safety of themselves and their kids. All of these problems stem from the beginning and the younger the individual is that consumes alcohol, the more likely these can occur (Degutis). On the other hand, others believe that there are many reason why the legal drinking age should be lowered. In European countries, the consumption of alcohol is more of a normal activity than in the United States.
Growing in up in our country today teens want to drink alchohol more because they aren’t supposed to have it. They see it as a sign of adulthood or maturity. So in order to gain this sense of adult-hood, they do things such as sneaking into clubs and bars or buying alchohol for their friends with fake ID’s. This can lead to many predicaments because these teens have not been raised with any experience with alcohol, and they will not know how to handle it or act responsibly. Research has shown that most teens drink only to become intoxicated.
So many of them binge drink; this is the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time. Binge drinking can lead to numerous problems such as alcohol poisoning which can be deadly and require emergency treatment. This could be avoided if teens knew how to be responsible with drinking and were taught by their parents like other countries instead of being banned from it until the age of 21. Per capita the consumption of alcohol in countries such as France, Spain, and Portugal is higher than the United States, the rate of alcohol abuse and alcoholism is lower.
This supports how people are more responsible if they are raised with alcohol as a part of every day life instead of hiding it until they believe that people are old enough to finally discover it (Wheelan). The most major reason that society wants the age to be lowered is because people are legally adults at 18 years old. At this age a citizen is given the right do take part in opportunities such as vote, purchase tobacco, and serve in the military. If someone can do all of these when they turn 18, why shouldn’t they be able to purchase alcohol?
They are allowed to do take part in important activities like helping decide the future of our country or put their life on the line to protect our country but cannot vote. The main issue is that even if someone is dodging bullets in another country to defend the United States and its’ citizens, they can’t return home and purchase alcohol for themselves because they aren’t 21 yet. If they go through that intense training and serve this nation so countless lives can be safe, they should be able to do practically whatever they want.
Soldiers don’t know how long they will survive in some of the dangerous places they are sent to so they should be able to live their life and at least have a drink or two if they want to without question. Besides risking their lives and being shipped from place to place, the ones that serve in the military also suffer the fate of being separated from their families for long periods of time. They don’t see their loved ones for months while they’re away and it only continues the longer they choose to participate in the military.
These people are incredible for defending this nation but it comes at a large cost. When they return, there should be no reason that they shouldn’t be allowed to purchase alcohol after they have endured so much for us. There are many valid points as to why the drinking age should be at the age of 21. People that drink under the age of 21 can be irresponsible with alcohol but that can easily be prevented. If parents would take the time to show their children how to responsible drink, they would be accustomed to it and understand how to behave when drinking.
Instead, alcohol is put on a pedestal that can’t be reached so when teens finally are of the legal age they don’t understand how to handle it. This is what leads to the reckless behavior such as drunk driving and more. If our country sees teens as responsible enough to do things such as vote, purchase tobacco products, or join the military then why shouldn’t they be allowed to buy alcohol? If at the age of 18, someone is recognized as a legal adult and gains all the responsibilities being one, they should be able to enjoy an adult luxury such as drinking.