Personal Views on Lowering the Drinking Age From 21 to 18

There has been a lot of debate and controversy when it comes to the legal drinking age here in US. When it comes to laws in general there are always going to be a bunch of opinions and concerns in general; some are for it and some are against, and when it comes to the legal drinking age here in the U.S I am opposed to it. I am a firm believer in lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18.

First and foremost, when it comes to the legal drinking age being 21 I am totally against it.

In the United States an 18-year-old has the right to vote, and lay their lives on the line to serve in the military for this great country but is not permitted to drink one of this great countries most cliché and televised beverages for adults, and this bothers me. It bothers me because I feel as if the government has all of these laws and sanctions stating when I am legally an adult and what I am able to do, and how I have to register my name for military purposes, yet tells me that I am a minor when it comes to drinking and eating responsibly.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Adult

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

If an 18-year-old can make up their mind as to who the potential leader of the country should be and take a bullet for their country, they should have every right to purchase and drink alcohol.

The law itself just feels contradicting and like a bad form of parenting.

Young men who barely look old enough to be holding a gun are fighting for our country and risking their lives every day. Yet, you are going to tell me they can’t crack a beer open after fighting all day in the hot desert and being shot at? That hardly seems fair. If these men and women can leave their homes in America for months and even years at a time, leave there families and possessions behind, obtain the mental strength and stability, as well as the power to shoot and kill another human being for whatever cause, go on covert operations, and be put in the line of fire without knowing whether or not they will be able to return to their respected homes and families, then they rightly deserve to engage in drinking. If our country thinks that an 18-year-old are capable of all the above, then they should certainly be responsible enough to not only drink, but drink responsibly as well.

When turning 18 in the United States you’re known legally as an adult, but demoralizing at times as well. Not being able to buy alcohol isn’t so adult like, but being able to sign your entire life over for your country is. When being in the military you see very many brainwashing and morality crushing sites and objectives, and being able to go buy a bottle after a long day may help some people cope. Being 18 isn’t that old and I’m sure when being in the military seeing some of the things they see is too much for one’s eyes.

Second, whether the legal drinking age is 21 or 18, there are going to be problems related to alcohol. And making 21 the legal age to drink doesn’t solve that problem. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reason why we see so many alcohol related deaths among teens. They get their hands on alcohol and get overly intoxicated as they are never sure if they will have access to this forbidden fruit ever again until they are 21. When in college specifically most students under the age of 21 can get hold of alcoholic beverages so in turn end up paying seniors and older adults to buy the forbidden drink for them, and in return sometimes pay more for the gesture. Something more demoralizing is that they are not allowed to drink at events where others might be able to drink. This once again makes them want to be a rebel and try out what it is they are being kept away from. They will give it a shot and learn from an unsupervised and what may be potentially a bad setting, which can in turn have even more extensive repercussions such as injury or death, because of one’s lack of experience with the substance.

As mentioned before, other countries drinking age limit is lower than the U.S’s and has explained to be because if you give something like alcohol to a minor in a supervised and safe setting it takes away the element of dare. I say dare because teens and young adults tend to do things because they are told not to. Examples of this is, trespassing in a “no trespassing” area, smoking weed, driving without a license, underage drinking, and list goes on. But if you take away this element and provide a safe environment along with logic and reasoning as to why it is handled the way it is then you teach the child or young adult responsibility. That is not to say the person will not make mistakes with the substance, but if alcohol is made more typical on a nationwide scale then it would not hold the power it does over minors or seemingly adults who may still let alcohol hold power over their head from irresponsible teachings learned from earlier trails in life.

The fact that college student, young adults, and even teens, don’t know when they will be able to drink again is in often time’s reason enough for most of them to get overly drunk and not turn down potential dangerous “free” handouts of alcoholic beverages when they get a chance. As a result, there are problems as serious as deaths. Drinking under the age of 21 is seen by most 18 years and older as a sign of adulthood. They are allowed to do everything else and call themselves an adult and they do not want to be stopped nor feel limited from being an adult and getting the full adult experience when it comes to drinking.

A lot of young adults at the age of 18 drink more than people who can legally do it because in today’s generation you have people called “bootleggers” who don’t care if you aren’t old enough, like majority of businesses if you have money that’s all that matter. Pinning an age on drinking doesn’t change anything, but makes things worse. Putting an age on drinking does nothing to young adults, but takes the thrill away leading to 18 year olds to wanting to do it just because the law says they can’t. According to a study, 22% of all students under 21 compared to 18% over 21 years of age are heavy drinkers. Among drinkers only, 32% of underage compared to 24% of legal age are heavy drinkers. Although the legal purchase age is 21 years of age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner.

All in all I the government may have thought initially lowering the legal consumption limit from twenty-one to eighteen may have been safe in the long run for the youth of this great nation but in the long run has proven more hazardous. Minors now simply avoid the law through loopholes and bootleggers putting the minor worst off then actually learning about the hazards of alcohol and then choosing to consume initially; this is because the government and alcohol companies lose money to bootleggers and middle men attempting to make initially more money or some form of payment from these minors and also you put the minor at risk by being in possession of the illegal beverage as well as being in touch with shady and sometimes untrustworthy strangers.

If the government and alcohol industries want to see more revenue from taxes off of alcohol sales and sales of goods from one distorted or hungry from alcohol consumption then they should lower the consumption limit. Raising the limit didn’t work, it had some positive effects but mostly negative and only put bad guys in business such as bootleggers. Maybe lowering the legal limit will have more of a positive effect than negative and end result teach more responsibility to minors as they grow and mature into adults on and off the roads and highways. This is my dream for the law and until this day comes I will forever be opposed to the legal alcohol consumption limit being twenty-one years of age instead of eighteen.