When someone turns eighteen, they are legally considered an adult. Turning eighteen comes with many new responsibilities, but also quite a few new abilities. These include the ability to purchase cigarettes, lottery tickets, and enlist in the military. Something you can’t do when you turn eighteen?
Legally drink or purchase alcohol.
This is something I will never understand. When you turn eighteen, everyone considers you an adult, yet you can’t go out to a bar with family or purchase a bottle of wine. I fully support the drinking age being lowered to eighteen, and I’ll tell you why:
First off, with the drinking age being twenty-one, many “minors” are still drinking alcohol. Eighteen to twenty-year-olds are in college, with their college friends, and may choose to drink or may even get a fake ID in order to purchase their own alcohol or go to a bar. Personally, I know at least a handful of people who have a fake ID and who frequently use it.
This is obviously a crime, and if these people were to be caught, they would be persecuted. I don’t know about you, but I think our law enforcement has a lot more serious crimes to attend to than a twenty-year-old buying some vodka with a fake ID. There’s no doubt that if the drinking age was lowered to eighteen a number of fake IDs in circulation would almost disappear completely. This would allow our law enforcement to focus on more heavy crime, which we all know is needed in today’s society.
I’ll never understand why someone can purchase cigarettes in most states at age eighteen if they can’t buy alcohol. I understand that alcohol has more of an effect on the body when it comes to judgment or reaction time, but smoking has much more serious health effects. If anything, the legal age to purchase cigarettes should be raised to match the legal age to purchase alcohol. I’m glad to see some states are starting to do this.
When researching a bit on the opposing view of this hot topic, I found three common reasons why people oppose the drinking age being lowered. These reasons were drunk driving, binge drinking and alcohol poisoning, and violent behavior related to alcohol consumption.
Drunk driving is a careless, selfish act. I will never support or defend someone who chooses to drink and drive, especially when innocent lives are lost. Although those under the age of twenty-five are most likely to drink and drive, I don’t think to lower the drinking age will have much effect. I do think there will need to be increased education about the effects of alcohol if the drinking age is lowered, but with the right education, we can avoid a spike in the drinking and driving rates. It isn’t that difficult to add a stronger curriculum to our society.
The next reason why many are against the drinking age being lowered is binge drinking and the risk of alcohol poisoning. The fear of an increase in binge drinking is due to the fact that 44% of college students who drink alcohol drink at the binge level or higher.
I find this reason somewhat irrelevant because college students are still going to binge drink regardless of if it is legal for them to drink or not. There are few college students under twenty-one that I know that don’t drink alcohol. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen won’t increase the amount of binge drinking on college campuses. Instead, it will increase the revenue of bars and liquor stores and will, once again, cut down on the illegal activity that takes place.
When it comes to violent behavior related to alcohol, I do think this is something that those in support of lowering the drinking age like myself should keep in mind. Alcohol is associated with an increased risk of hazardous sexual behavior or just violent behavior in general.
Our mind is constantly developing and an eighteen-year-olds judgment is much different than that of a twenty-one-year-old's judgment, even without alcohol in the picture. Letting younger people have legal access to alcohol could easily lead to an increase in these behaviors. Just like with drinking and driving, I think an increase in education related to the effects of alcohol would help. It wouldn’t remove these behaviors completely from our society, however, if the age is lowered there’s no doubt it would be necessary.
Keeping the legal drinking age at twenty-one isn’t going to stop minors from drinking. Minors have proved time and time again they’ll go as far as getting a fake ID just to get their hands on some alcohol. If I can sign up for the military, throw all of my money into the lottery, watch and purchase pornography, and smoke cigarettes the day I turn eighteen, then I don’t see what the harm is in buying some alcohol or going out to the bar. With our constantly revolutionizing society, lowering the drinking age is something we should strongly consider. Many other countries throughout the world have a lower drinking age. I think America should take the step in that direction.
