Lower the Drinking Age to 18
When a child turns 18, this entails him or her to receive certain rights and responsibilities of adulthood. Eighteen year old "adults" can vote, get married, sign up for certain contracts, serve on juries, and die for their country, meaning they understand the concept of life and death. Adults from the age of eighteen should be able to make their own choice about alcohol consumption.
I believe lowering the drinking age will make alcohol less of a taboo. The thrill of breaking the law will be taken away from children. Adolescents need to learn how to drink in moderation, and because they do not have the opportunity to do this, these children end up binge drinking when they consume alcohol. I believe it is better to teach the youth how to drink responsibly.
Keeping the drinking laws at the age of 21 sends the wrong signal to younger people. It represents that alcohol consumption shows maturity, which leads teenagers wanting to drink, so they appear more sophisticated. I believe lowering the drinking age will dispel this misconception.
Our society prohibits people under the age of 21 from drinking in bars, restaurants, and various other public locations, which forces these "minors" to drink in unsupervised areas, which is often very unsafe. When teenagers get hurt from alcohol related injuries they are often afraid of seeking medical attention or telling their parents in fear of legal consequences or thoughts of disapproval. Lowering the drinking age will allow teens to drink alcohol in supervised environments, so nothing dire goes unnoticed.
In our world today there is a lot more important issues that need to be addressed, rather than focusing time and money on minor issues such as drinking ages. I believe if our government used the money wasted on enforcing the laws of "minor" drinking and spent it on education for the youth in all aspects of knowledge, including alcohol consumption it would be more beneficial.
I believe the drinking age should be lowered to 18 years old. After the first initial years of changing it, I believe America will change to be more like Europe in their laid back drinking habits. I believe everyone would benefit from this law change. At the age of 18, individuals are considered at the age of majority and qualify as adults in society. Men and women at the age of 18 are also able to die for their country. I believe if they have the right and privilege to enlist in the army, they should also have the right to enjoy a few drinks.
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To: Kate, From: Heather
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. If 18 is the age where a person becomes an adult then they should be able to make their own decisions. I also believe that drinking is so thrilling for teenagers because it is illegal and because we are breaking the law. If we are allowed to drink then we will not binge and we will be able to learn our limits and practice safe drinking. I also agree that if we understand the concept of life and death, can vote, get married, be in the army, and all of these other important issues, then we should be able to drink at the age of 18. If 18 is when we are supposed to be considered adults then we should be able to make our own decisions about alcohol and everything else. If we can still get in trouble for drinking then I do not believe we should be considered adults. I think the drinking age should be lowered to 18.
To Kate
ReplyDeleteFrom Stanley
Well I just turned 18 a few months ago and I have yet to feel “maturer” than I use to be. I can honestly say that I am still a child. I need my parents to survive, shelter that they give me, and of course...their money. As for many 18 year old out there, I am not afraid to say the same for them. We are not mature at age 18. Some people may be, but honestly, the majority of us aren’t. Many incidents happen when people are drunk. Having gotten drunk before, I know how stupid I can sometimes act. It’s as if is anything went wrong, after a good night sleep it would be over. This mentality is present in many people, and therefore, it shows us that we are still not mature enough to handle alcohol by ourselves.
Underage drinking is a MAJOR problem in America more than other countries. May this be because of our social backgrounds or something else, I do not know. But if the drinking age was to be lowered to 18, we would see a lot more drunk stupid “adults” outside wandering the streets at night.
To: Kate From: Brittany
ReplyDeleteI agree that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. In many other countries the drinking age is as low as 16 and there seems to be no problem with it. I think that if people are allowed to drink at a younger age then they won't take advantage of it when they are older, especially since most people will drink just because they think its exciting to do something that is illegal. Outside the United States people who are allowed to drink at a younger age learn to drink responsibly because they are even allowed to have a drink at dinner when they are with their parents. I think if the drinking age was lowered to 18 in the United States people would learn how to drink and be responsible. It would also be beneficial because most people already know college students drink underage anyway and it is sometimes over looked by the police but for all the times people would get in trouble for underage drinking it wouldn't happen as much if the drinking age was 18.
To: Kate
ReplyDeleteFrom: Carley
I also agree that lowering the drinking age to eighteen is a good idea. If men and women can leave and fight for their country at this age, I believe that they should have the same rights as a 21 year old. Raising the drinking age has not changed the ways of underaged drinking, every high school has it, every college, almost every kid. There are still thousands of underaged, alcohol related car accidents and alcohol related accidents each year. The older age has changed anything besides the fact that kids have to hide it even more until they’re of age. Like in Europe, if alcohol was introduced at a young age as something that is socially acceptable and controlled, than kids wouldn’t be as tempted to abuse alcohol. At this point it would be extremely challenging to lower it after it had previously been raised because their would most likely be a period of complete chaos. It would take years to American kids to become accustom to and respect alcohol. It seems that these ideas are just not in our culture, as it is in Europe, and it would be hard to tell if this country could ever make the adjustment.
Kate Loughlin to Kate Rivard
ReplyDeleteI do think that the current drinking rules are not successfully enforced or able to prevent underage drinking, especially binge drinking. However, there are problems with lowering the drinking age. With the drinking age being 21 most 18 year olds still drink, if the drinking age were lowered to 18 it might me most 15 year olds who were drinking instead. Many 18 year olds are still in high school and could procure alcohol for their friends and classmates (obviously many people do drink in high school at this point but it would only increase). Hopefully people have become more mature from high school to college and are more able to handle themselves. Teenager's brains are still developing limiting their ability to make good decisions and increasing the harm alcohol can cause. Also, the amount of drunk driving fatalities has decreased highly since the 21 year old rule became nationwide which makes it less likely for the age limit to be lowered.