Drinking age debate

At the age of 18 you are legally considered an adult in the U. S. It entitles you to what you would think to be the freedoms of a responsible adult. You can vote, get married, join the army and fight for our country, and even sign contracts. But somehow you’re not considered mature enough to have a sip of alcohol? This law should be considered discrimination against young adults in the 18-20 age range. What many people don’t know, is the real reason why we have the world’s highest drinking age. In 1984 congress threatened to reduce highway funding for all states who did not raise their minimun purchase age and public possession of alcohol laws. Of course all U. S. states complied with this act, nationally raising the legal age. They say it’s done to save lives, that it keeps youth away from the dangers of alcohol. The truth is we always want what we can’t have, and alcohol being a forbidden fruit creates a taboo of consuming it. Lowering the age will take the high of rebelling away from it. The biggest problem we face with alcohol isn’t the use of it but the abuse of it. This law has pushed underage drinking behind closed doors and in unsupervised places that are unsafe for inexperienced drinkers. Statistics show that most who consume under age are indeed binge drinking. Binge drinking is considered having 5 or more alcoholic beverages within a 2 hour time frame. It has been known that there are 100, 000 deaths annualy related to binge drinking and alcohol abuse. In July of 2008 John McCardell, a college president, initiated The Amethyst Initiative which supports lowering the national drinking age due to the harmful consequences of binge drinking. McCardell’s goal, along with the other 135 other college presidents who support the initiative, is to encourage new ideas on ways to teach young adults how to make responsible decisions regarding alcohol. It would be much more effective to teach today’s youth the risks and responsibilities involved with alcohol rather than punish them for something nearly all of today’s society is engaging in. Not only would it save our country money to educate, but it would possibly save lives as well. People say that the earlier a person consumes alcohol the more likely they are to have alcohol problems later in life, so educating them and teaching them safe drinking habits will highly reduce these risks. It is much more logical to have people learning to drink in the safety of their own home with parents than in a fraternity house. Imagine your bright, freshly 18 year old son heading off to college starting his adult life all on his own. Now, it’s 4: 15 on a Saturday morning the fall of his freshman year when you receive a life changing phone call. Your son, at the young age of 18, has died of alcohol poisoning. He went to a frat party with tons of booze. Kegs, shots, mixed drinks, beer pong, flip cup…. the list goes on. The activities and excessive drinking his body entailed was unsurvivable. In a house full of hundreds your son fell to the ground in convulsions. His young life taken from him because he didn’t know his limits. His young life taken because a house full of under age drinkers were too scared to dial 911. His young life taken all because these young adults didn’t understand the risks and responsibilities of drinking. When the police were finally called it was too late. Now, how upsetting is it to think that your son’s death might have been prevented if the drinking age were 18 and they were drinking responsibly. So the next time you consider the drinking age think about the …. Just because it’s the law does not make it right.