At 18 years old, you are considered an adult. You can buy tobacco products, go to bars, move out of your house, pay your own bills, and even die for your country. So, why can’t you legally buy and drink alcohol? I am very against the drinking laws. They are not realistic or fair in any way. At the end of the day bars, liquor stores, and clubs are in it for the money. With that being said, they normally have no issue selling alcohol to underage drinkers. As long as they get paid and aren’t caught, they could care less.
The law was passed in 1987 to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21, but it is doing more harm than help. A lot of teens drink because they are rebellious. They don’t have the privilege to be able to walk into a store and buy beer, so they feel the need to rebel, or ‘look cool’ because they are breaking the law by underage drinking. Since the law was passed, there has been a decrease in car accidents, but a very high increase in excessive, irresponsible drinking.
I feel that if the legal age was lowered to 18, teens wouldn’t feel the need to drink as much because they would have access to it whenever. Telling a teenager they aren’t allowed to do something just makes them want to do it even more. If young adults aged 18-20 have the same responsibilities that older adults do, they should also have the right to choose to drink.
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I cannot understand why somebody can enlist in war, put their lives on the line, and potentially die, but not be able to drink a beer. At 18 years old, you are considered free, and an adult. You are expected to be responsible and take care of your own business, so why aren’t you seen as responsible enough to consume alcohol? It is very obvious that the law has failed, and should just be changed back.
As a high school student, I can personally say that I don’t know one student that hasn’t at least tried alcohol. Most people I know are partying every single weekend and consuming very excessive amounts of alcohol, ignoring what the law says.
According to a CDC Fact Sheet, people aged 12-20 years old drink 11% of the alcohol consumed in the United States. This is saying that drinking under 21 is very common. A Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that in 30 days, 30% of students drank alcohol, and 14% were binge drinking.
