Should Drinking Age be Lowered?

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18 in America?

The drinking age in America is 21 and many people have debated that the age should be lowered. It is said that people can smoke, fight in the war, serve on a jury and gain several new privileges at the age of 18 but they can't have alcohol. Some colleges even believe that lowering the drinking age is the best idea and think that preventing underage college kids from drinking is not really working. It is almost impossible to prevent underage drinking because if kids want alcohol they will find a way to get it, especially on a college campus. Underage drinking occurs on all college campuses and because its illegal many students will hide their drinking leading to other problems. For example if a person gets alcohol poisoning they might hesitate to get help because they will get in trouble by thier parents and because it is against the law. Another important factor is that kids might not be taught enough about alcohol in school or in their homes and might not realize that it can lead to trouble. In many countries drinking is not an issue because the drinking age is lower and kids learn about drinking in moderation from their families. In America kids are told that they can not drink until they are 21 but most kids don't listen to that law because they figure that no one will catch them, or that they don't even care about getting into trouble. Lowering the drinking age would help kids become more familiar with alcohol and maybe become safer while consuming alcohol. I also think that it would be very important to make sure that laws were state in high schools about the drinking age and that students were taught about alcohol in health class before they turn 18. Many people believe that when the drinking age was changed to 21 it just shifted the amount of fatal drinking car accidents from teens to the young adults. Maybe 20,000 lives were saved between the ages of 18-20 year olds because the drinking age changed to 21 but im sure about 20,000 young adults died that year from drinking and driving. Lowering the drinking age would be a good idea because kids will become more familiar with drinking at home and increasing alcohol education could also be helpful in decreasing fatal accidents and decreasing drinking related incidents. The drinking age wont matter if it stays at 21 because college kids and others will still get alcohol and drink if they want to. Acknowledging that kids are drinking at a younger age and changing the drinking age is the best solution to the problem. Requiring kids to take health class that talk about the effects of alcohol and talking to kids about what happens while drinking and driving should also be required.


A few sites that prove/talk about these theories:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/19/60minutes/main4813571.shtml

http://www.youthrights.org/dafaq.php

http://drinkingage.procon.org/