The Drinking Age

The legal drinking age was risen in the mid 1980s from 18 to 21. The main purpose of the new law was to help keep the highways safe and reduce alcohol related deaths. Underage kids, however, are still finding ways to drink unsupervised, which is more dangerous than if they were supervised. This issue has turned into a national debate.

Once a person turns 18, he or she has the responsibilities of adulthood; to vote, join the military, and to be prosecuted as an adult. It makes sense that when a person has received these rights, they should also be allowed to consume alcohol. Just because it is illegal for teenagers to drink alcohol in public does not mean that they will not drink alcohol at all, it only pushes them to drink in unsupervised areas such as fraternities, basements, and behind locked dorm rooms. Most of these kids try to drink a lot in a short amount of time to become more drunk at a faster rate, this causes many problems.  When one underage kid has had too much to drink and is in need of immediate medical help, others who are there may hesitate to contact for help because they are afraid of being caught and getting in trouble with the law for having alcohol; however, if it was legal for 18 year olds to drink in public, they would not have to question whether or not they should get help. Instead of being in secretive places, they would be out drinking in public where police officers, managers, and health workers are there to supervise.

When kids are told they cannot have or do something, they will want to rebel against it because they are curious and want to know what it is that they are missing out on, which can become a thrill to them. Whenever teenagers are given a chance to consume alcohol, they will take it. They tend to drink more because they are not sure as to when the next time they will have the opportunity to drink again will be.

The main reason the drinking age was risen in the first place was to reduce highway deaths. Even though this has helped decrease deadly road accidents, alcohol related deaths that are not associated with the highways have increased. Their needs to be improvements with the law about drinking and driving because whatever the legal age of drinking is, there will always be car accidents due to drunk driving. Though deaths related to alcohol consumption without being related to highways can be reduced by lowering the drinking age. Kids would have a better understanding of how to drink in moderation and would not have to be in a dangerous, unsupervised place to drink.