Drinking Age Law

Champagne is a common celebratory drink at weddings. You say, "I do" and make toasts to your future happiness. If you fall in love at a young age and decide to get married in the United States, you will not be able to do this custom, while the US has the highest legal drinking age in the world.

When Prohibition was passed in the 1920s, enforcing this law was very difficult for the government and led to a disrespect for the law, growth of organized crime, and development of immoderate consumption patterns. These same tendencies are seen today with the current drinking age law. Having a higher drinking age has forced underage drinking underground, where it cannot be controlled. If teenagers get hurt from alcohol-related accidents, they are less likely to seek medical help for fear of the legal consequences. Lowering the age would allow teens to drink in a better regulated environment with supervision. In certain states parents or guardians are legally allowed to buy their children alcohol, as long as it is from a liquor store, and they are also allowed to serve their children alcohol in some state laws. Although a higher drinking age causes a lower proportion of the population to drink, those that do still, do so abusively.

A large number of high school students in the rest of the developed world, where there are lower drinking ages and the enforcement policies are less strict, do considerably better than US students on standardized tests.


Lowering the drinking age makes drinking less of a taboo, taking away the thrill many underage drinkers get from breaking the law or rebelling. This would also allow drinking to be more socially acceptable, would create healthy drinking habits earlier, and overall let young people have much safer drinking experiences.
In the US, at age 18 you are allowed to vote, marry, go to jail, fight and die for your country. Apparently at this age you are not responsible enough to drink.

Drinking Age Debate