Raising the drinking age

Kyle Hannah
Philosophy 4
27 February 2014

Drinking Age of America
When turning 18, you are classified as an adult, you can vote, you can signature your own legal documents, and you can suit up for the army; the one thing you cannot do in America when you’re 18 is drink. Drinking nowadays in many countries is a very popular social activity amongst teens and adults. With Colleges and the upbeat culture America has, it’s hard for young adults to not have a drink here and there; but American Law lists that the drinking age is 21 and older. The legal drinking age bring up an issue, if the age of 18 is classified as being an adult, and allowed to basically do anything with our lives at that point, shouldn’t we be allowed to drink? The legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 years old, and allow the young adults to experience alcohol before they are thrown into the pool of alcohol abuse when they get older.
In many countries the legal drinking age is 18 or even lower than that. Which sounds absurd to us Americans, but in the countries where drinking is allowed when 18 or lower, they do not have as many alcohol related issues as we do. For example in Italy, their water supply is very contaminated and not safe to drink, so for many people in that country, wine is a very popular drink to have at dinner instead of water. When kids grow up drinking alcohol every so often, they learn how to be responsible with it and don’t see it as such a big deal as those who haven’t been introduced it their whole life. If American teenagers were introduced alcohol here and there, they would learn to not misuse it and possibly get themselves into trouble. It’s the same as riding a bike, the child doesn’t just start out riding on a bike, they get training wheels to learn how to operate the bike. With having the training wheels they’ll learn the basics of ridding before moving onto the real thing. It is the same situation with lowering the drinking age. America needs to lower the drinking age and allow kids to learn how to drink responsibly, so when the day does come where they are drinking with their friends, they will know what to do and what not to do, to stay safe.
Those at the age of 18 and older should be allowed to drink in controlled and detained areas like restaurants, pubs, and university events. Allowing young adults to drink at places like that, will teach them how to drink responsibly and be taught through educational and role modeling standards. The most responsible and mature behavior would be expected from the young adult and nothing less. Having the drinking age be 21 and older, and having kids going into college where they are surrounded by binge drinking and partying, the young adult is thrown into a world they may have never experienced before; with that being said, when you throw a house trained cat into the wilderness, the results won’t be so good. Young adults need to have experienced drinking responsibly in a controlled environment, so they can know what they are doing when they go into college. Either way, if the legal drinking age is lowered or not, the young adult will try alcohol in college, drinking, for a young adult, is a thrilling and exciting new experience. They feel a sense of defiance and adulthood; the alcohol is seen as the alluring “forbidden fruit”. With legal age being so high, it leaves many younger adults having to sneak around and do illegal things just to get the alcohol. Tracing back to the 1920’s where there was a prohibition of all transportation, sales, and manufacturing of all alcoholic beverages. The government’s mission was to lower crime, improve health and sanitation, reduce taxes, and to help the social problems they were having currently. The results were the completely opposite of what they sought for. Alcohol became more dangerous to handle, crime rates increased exponentially, and organized mobs became more numerous. Although the situation we have now isn’t as serious as the prohibition era, there is a possibility that in the next century we could relapse, where organized crime and violence increases.
Many activist back up their arguments for keeping the drinking age 21 and older, due to the annual economic costs of underage drinking. PIRE (The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation) did a study on the costs of underage drinking. The overall economic costs yearly for underage drinking is 5.4 billion dollars; which in no way is a low number, but when doing research on the costs of underage drinking, the other side must be looked at as well. The other side being the profit and all the money used to buy the alcohol so that the kids can enact the underage drinking. PIRE also researched the economic benefit of underage drinking; the overall economic profit from underage drinking comes to a whopping amount of $18.1 billion (Alcohol Problems). That 18.1 billion goes back to the businesses involved in selling the liquor, which provides more jobs.
On the other hand there are many cons against lowering the drinking age to 18. Alcohol is one of the most popular drugs of choice amongst the youth. Too many younger people are experiencing the dangers and consequences of drinking alcohol, at too young of age. Approximately 5000 underage kids die from binge drinking. Not all deaths are caused from alcohol poisoning, 300 from suicides while under the influence of alcohol, 1600 on top of the 5000 annual deaths are caused from homicides, and1900 more from motor vehicle accidents. Although the alarming number may shock many and inspire those to stand up against underage drinking, the numbers of adolescents drinking is increasing every year. A survey done by the MTF (Monitoring the Youth Foundation) tested over 49,347 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students in the 402 private and public schools(Binge Drinking). Along with the survey, an annual follow up of questionnaires were sent to a group of each graduating class for about 5 years; the results showed that for every four students, three of them had drank alcohol to the point of binge drinking.
Most teenagers in high school acquire their licenses in between 16 to 18 years of age. Getting a license when you are a teen is one of the most exciting and gratifying experiences. Being that they are new to the whole driving scene, teenagers have the highest risk of accidents in all of the age groups. They take more risks, they have poor hazard detection, and the list goes on. With all that in mind, when mixed with alcohol, there can be severe consequences. A teenage boy’s likely hood to get in a crash is increased 18 times, just by a few drinks and teenage girl’s is increased by a staggering 54 times. With hanging out with friends they tend to fall into peer pressure many of times. Peer pressure can lead to underage drinking which can lead to the teenager getting behind the wheel and endangering himself. If the legal drinking age was lowered to 18, it wouldn’t change the amount of drunk driving by 16 to 17 year olds, but it would increase 18 to 20 year old drunk driving, which would lead to a higher demand for highway patrol, resulting to millions of dollars spent every year.
When someone becomes an adult, their able to make their own decisions without parental consent, even if the decision is good or bad; and they will be seen as an adult in doing so. The right of an 18 year old should be no different than the right of a 21 year old. 18 year olds are not allowed to drink, even though they are classified as adults. The problem with 18 year olds not being the legal age is that, they are introduced to college where binge drinking is most notorious. When thrown into such a crazy environment with no prior experience of such thing can be quite dangerous. If the legal age of drinking was 18 it benefit the economic system as well as the young adults who will have had prior experience with the substance before being thrown into the adult world of drinking.

Works Cited
Frances, Herbert. "Underage Drinking: A Major Public Health Challenge -- Alcohol Alert No. 59." NIAAA Publications. N.p., 13 May 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2013.

Cited: Frances, Herbert. "Underage Drinking: A Major Public Health Challenge -- Alcohol Alert No. 59." NIAAA Publications. N.p., 13 May 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2013.