Will the drinking limit be reduced from 21 to 18 years old?

The current minimum drinking age in the United States is twenty-one years old, which is a contentious problem for many. Legislation hoped that by raising the drinking age, people will drink more carefully and their minds grow as they get older, and with growth comes wisdom and duty. Despite the fact that this legislation was enacted to protect the well-being of young people, it has done more harm than good and should be reduced to eighteen. When an individual reaches the age of eighteen, society considers them to be an adult. Yes, it may seem absurd to argue that 18-year-olds should have the lawful right to consume alcohol; however, this is not the case when the facts are considered. At eighteen, one can have children, get married, be prosecuted as an adult, serve in the army, serve on juries, smoke cigarettes, vote in elections, and drive a car. However, one cannot have a beer until they turn twenty-one? If young people less than twenty-one years old can lawfully have children and particularly, can go and battle on the front lines for our nation, then it seems rational that they ought to have the capacity to consume liquor.
At the age of eighteen, an individual is lawfully viewed as a grown-up and consequently acquires various rights and duties. It is not reasonable that a man or a lady can put his or her life on the line fighting for our nation by enlisting in the military, yet the same individual is not thought to be old enough to buy or drink liquor. The country considers eighteen-year-olds to be responsible enough to vote on crucial government positions and to serve on a jury and decide a person’s legal destiny. It is additionally bizarre that the United States asserts that eighteen-year-olds are lawfully in charge of themselves and their actions and they can live on their own and support themselves. On the off chance that an eighteen-year-old breaks the law, then they can go to prison for the rest of their life. Most States give a sixteen-year-old the benefit of driving without a legal guardian or parent present. When a child is in the driver's seat, they can do incomprehensible harm and have control of countless lives at their hands. All these are by a long shot a more noteworthy responsibility than drinking alcohol. What is worse; fighting in the Middle East and experiencing bloody wars first hand or having a shot of whiskey? If the U.S government says that an eighteen-year-old kid is a lawful grown-up and can move out and begin a family of their own or do anything recorded above but cannot legally buy or consume liquor, then it is contradicting itself.
The legal drinking age should be reduced to eighteen because it would lessen the amount of binge drinking and allow for supervised consumption of alcohol. The national drinking age was increased from eighteen to twenty-one back in 1984. Nelson and Wechsler believe that those who imagined that raising this age would spare lives and lessen the measure of kids drinking were completely wrong (Wechsler and Nelson). Instead, this law has been a miserable failure. It has not diminished or dispensed underage drinking. It has essentially driven it underground, away from the public eye, into the most unsafe and least manageable of locations. Individuals will always want what they cannot have. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, 61% of college students take alcohol (NIH), almost all of which are below twenty-one. Being surrounded by peer pressure, alcohol, and parties drive understudies below twenty-one years to consuming liquor. The ease of access to alcohol from their associates allows the underage consumers to devour as much liquor as they need in one night. Those under twenty-ones are the heaviest users having at least five drinks in one night whenever they can. This massive consumption then prompts to a huge issue with our liquor devouring youth today: binge drinking. Over 90% of liquor taken by minors is done by heavy drinking (Wechsler and Nelson), or what people refer to as binge drinking. Binge drinking is the principle motivation behind why most researchers and specialists advocate for lowering the legal drinking age. Undergrads binge drink because they are not legally able to take liquor, so they think they need to fit the majority of the drinking into one night. The effects of binge drinking are frightening and at times fatal. Binge drinking can cause alcoholic poisoning and even death. If the legal drinking age is brought down to eighteen, this issue could be diminished all through the nation by giving them the privilege to drink under supervision in bars, pubs, restaurants, and official school functions. Mature and sensible drinking conduct would be expected.
Having the legal drinking age at twenty-one is not a solution to curb underage drinking. The country had had this underage drinking issue as far back as it was changed in 1984. The legislature has been attempting to stop underage parties and control binge drinking, but it is still not succeeding. Something else needs to stop it before it becomes a national crisis if it is not already. Another approach to control the issue and still lower the drinking age to eighteen would be educating the youth about the impacts of excessive drinking. Glaser believes that “Teaching people to drink responsibly before they turn 21 would enormously enhance public health” (Glaser). Educating young adults about alcohol is critical for their developing minds. If they are informed about the effect that excessive alcohol has on their brain, then they will not be as reckless about drinking and will drink less or stop altogether (Glaser). There will be those who could not care less about the impacts of liquor on their brain, and they will keep on binge drinking; however, most teenagers have the judgment skills to drink less if alcohol causes brain harm, loss of cerebrum cells and different perilous things to their cerebrum. It is not only the teenager’s duty to be safe when it comes to drinking; it is additionally the parent's obligation to ensure they educate their children about liquor. Guardians are an essential part of their kids' lives; they have to be involved and teach their children about making responsible choices. Teenagers are not handed car keys without receiving driving lessons. The drinking age should, therefore, be lowered but teenagers should first be educated about the effects of excessive alcohol consumption.
Numerous people believe that eighteen-year-olds cannot handle liquor since they make an excessive amount of errors and that they are not mature enough. However, if an individual starts to drink at eighteen or twenty-one, their tolerance is going to be the same. Without education on the effects of alcohol, the mistakes one makes when they start drinking at twenty-one are the same ones one would make if they started at eighteen. Also, society uses teenagers as scapegoats for liquor issues when truly it does not make a difference if you are eighteen, twenty-one, or forty years old. Alcohol is still a challenging issue among all individuals. It does not disappear when one turns twenty-one or fifty. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism records above 6.2% of people over twenty-five are addicted to alcohol (NIH). Regardless of what age you begin to drink; alcohol will always be a problem. Another worry is that lowering the drinking age will prompt to more abundance drinking since it will be more available for teenagers. In actuality, when alcohol is made legal for eighteen-year-olds, they are less likely to drink irresponsibly as they will not feel the need to binge drink to remain drunk for a for a longer period. The environment in which underage drinkers drink illegally one for safe drinking.
One of the most disputed matters in the country is what the legal drinking age ought to be. Today, the drinking age is twenty-one, but why twenty-one and not eighteen or forty-five? Numerous twenty-one-year-olds had drunk before they turned twenty-one. The greater part of them has been to parties that had alcohol, binge drinking, and unsupervised activities. This illegal underage drinking goes on behind closed doors away from the public eye. If the drinking age were to be brought down to eighteen, these doors would all be opened, and this nation and its legislature could educate the eighteen-year-olds about the effects of alcohol. Lowering the legal drinking age would also help eradicate, or at least decrease the problem of binge drinking and spare youthful grown-ups from liquor abuse.











Works Cited
Glaser, Gabrielle. Return the Drinking Age to 18, and Enforce It. 10 February 2015. Web. 6 March 2017.
NIH. Monitoring the Future Study: Trends in Prevalence of Various Drugs. 2017. Web. 6 March 2017. .
Wechsler, Henry and Toben Nelson. "Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths?" American Journal of Public Health (2017): 986-992. Print.