Minimum Legal Drinking Age Should Be Lowered
Minimum Legal Drinking Age Should be Lowered “Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer.” ("Amethyst Initiative: Rethink the Drinking Age"). The causes behind the minimum legal drinking age standardization nationally has not been alleviated in the past couple decades and should be repealed. The minimum legal drinking age should be lowered to the age of eighteen which is the age when one is no longer a minor. Many adults in between the ages of 18-20 years old admit that they have consumed alcohol at least once if not on a regular basis. If an adult the age of eighteen can fight for our country and go over seas away from the life he knows to fight in a war then he should be able to have a beer or a shot while he’s on leave without being prosecuted because he is under the legal drinking age. One of the main reasons the minimum legal drinking age was nationally raised to twenty-one in the late 70’s early 80’s was because the government deemed that adults under the age of twenty-one were not mature enough to handle alcohol, yet these same adults are mature enough to get married and buy houses, vote, and fight for our country. By lowering the drinking age in America to eighteen it would help prevent alcohol related accidents by familiarizing Americans with alcohol and its effects. In other countries through out the world the minimum drinking age according to the International Center for Alcohol Policies table of minimum age limits worldwide out of the one hundred countries listed the minimum drinking age for off premise consumption is eighteen, and even about ten percent allow on premise consumption at younger ages than that (“ICAP”). The majority of the rest of the world’s young adults are allowed to consume alcohol at the age of eighteen and have done so in a mature manner and are more acclimated to the effects of alcohol
Cited: "Lowering the Drinking Age to 18." Talk Left. N.p., 12 Apr 2005. Web. 11 May 2011. . "Minimum Age Limits Worldwide." ICAP. International Center for Alcohol Policies, Jan 2010. Web. 11 May 2011. . "Statement." Amethyst Initiative: Rethink the Drinking Age. Amethyst Initiative, n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. .