Lower the Drinking Age

Picture this, it’s your 18th birthday, you are deemed legal to vote, buy dip, serve on a jury, receive the death penalty and enlist in the military but yet you are still too immature to drink, or so says the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Congress believes you can: live on your own, vote for the next president, determine someone else’s future by voting on a jury and sentenceing an individual to death, all when you are 18 but you are clearly incapable of having a beer. The drinking age should be reduced to 18 because young adults need to learn their limits and be educated about alcohol rather than have this forbidden thing that high school and college students do behind authorities backs. After researching, drinking ages in 123 different countries around the world 105 of them either have no drinking age or a drinking age 18 and under. (1) Completely getting rid of the drinking age would be the best case scenario because then drinking wouldn’t be glorified as the “forbidden fruit” to adolescents and they would see mature and responsible drinking, as apposed to today’s college-beer-fest-I-can’t-remember-last-night-puke-your-brains-out-extravaganza. In most regions of Europe the legal age to drink is 18.   To help prevent drunk driving many European countries have started conducting road safety campaigns and installing radar units on highways along with harsh punishments if caught driving drunk with immediate license revocation. In the States, we can prevent drunk teen drivers because it would be legal, so people will be more likely to call their parents or a taxi for a ride.   Now, how many of you think that the drinking age should be lowered? Well, you are not alone. The Amethyst Initiative is made up of Chancellors and Presidents of Universities and Colleges across the United States that believe the drinking age should be dropped to 18. There are a total of 135 members in the Amethyst Initiative including President Richard F. Celeste of Colorado College, President... [continues]

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