The Drinking Age 2 Essay, Research Paper

The DRINKING Age

Why can’t the legal drinking age be lowered to 18? This is a question asked by thousands of kids and adults under the age of 21years. Over all if you think about it is sort of ignorant how the government made the required drinking age 21, were they thinking that when you reach 21yrs of age you are more responsible and more priveledged than any one else? I guess no one really knows. But, really why did the law mandate all states to raise the drinking age to 21 in 1987. I mean come on the National Prohibitions didn’t work, even though the government tried it twice. So, what will?

Although it is ilegal to drink if you are under the age of 21, in my opinion I believe this still wouldn’t detter people under the age of 21 not to drink. I think this because when the people under the age of 21-obtaine alcohol, I think it would give a sense of rebelion, adulthood, and special privledges that they would not normally be able to achieve. Thus, giving the people drinking more of reason to drink irrisponsibly and what happens when that occurs? Well, the answers to that are injuries, Prison, and possibly Death. So, in my opinion it was a huge mistake by the government when they raised the age on drinking. What I belive happened, was that the government was trying deplete the number of incidents occuring in the 1980’s. But, apparently it was a counter-productive measure when the government raised drinking age to 21 in 1987, and if you look at the statistics and research from the early 1980’s (before 1987) they clearly show that there was a huge decrease in alcohol related incidents compared to 1987 and beyond. And why is this? This is because people are literally refrained from drinking until they reach the age of 21years old, and what happens? People go out and drink irrisponsibly.

So, what would happen if the drinking age were to be lowered? Well, I believe there would be more responsible drinkers, less of an urgency to drink, and a drastic decline in alcohol related incidents. Why do I believe this? I believe this because if you were able to drink when you reached the age of 18 you would definetly have more knowledge about alcohol consumption, alcohol related laws, and programs. Also when you reached the age of 18 there would be a great decrease in irrisponsible drinking due to the alternitives such as drinking in a controlled enviornment, where you can be monitered by other adults and people. Compared to drinking in a non-controlled enviornment(in thewoods,desert,beaches) where there are tons of possibilities for injury, death, etc But, you also should consider the benefits of lowering the drinking age such as less of a need for drugs (which can be proved drasticlly by numerous statistics) because what would rather prefer your kid drinking a glass of alcohol or using a narcotic to shoot up such as heroine. So, basically lowering the drinking age to 18 would have a drastic if not dynamic over all effect to alcohol related inccidents.

Also, I don’t think it’s right for the government or law to judge and use people based upon their age. I do not think it is essentially right, because the government proclaims people adults when they reach the age of 18, yet they give them numerous restrictions and rules as if these so called “adults” were children. But, I guess from the government’s point of view, they think people under the age of 18 are responsible enough to vote, die for their country, get married, drive a car, buy a house, have kids, own a business, and work for their government, but not responsible enough to consume alcohol. I mean come on most of the adults today drunk alcohol when they were 18 before the 1987 law was initiated, and for them to say we are not responsible until we reach the magical age of 21 is kind of foolish to me. So, how many mistakes will the government have to make until they realize that they are pushing the wrong ideas? If you look at even ancient cultures, such as Italian, Greek, Jewish, and Chinese culttures you can clearly see that they had very little problems dealing with alcohol. And, while their has been a increase in under age drinking, I hope the governmet will realize and correct their mistake before it’s too late.

For the most part I think lowering the drinking age will have various benefits to this country, which will not only help us succeed economically but politically as well. So, to conclude I will say once again that it is essential for the drinking age to be lowered, because honestly few people can only change so much. And, if lowering the drinking age to 18 is the way to help us all change for the better I think it is well worth it.