Conflicts have flown through society about lowering the drinking age and making it available that 18 year olds should have the privilege and opportunity to drink. There have been different periods throughout history that the United States, as well as many other countries, have debated over and changed the legal drinking age. As far as things are going nowadays, there are many different cases of underage alcohol abuse, and many fatalities due to minors in possession of alcohol. But who is to say that things wouldn’t change or even get better if the legal drinking age was lowered? Could things be treated more maturely and would abuse slowly decline over the years? Well I think that if the drinking age was to be lowered, things would straighten out and it would flow nicely in today’s quickly maturing and growing society.

In unaccountable numbers of cases, having a high drinking age has caused numerous problems in our society. For one, because the stakes are set so high, this causes curious minors to experiment with alcohol which leads into a bad path. For instance, kids these days are always looking to party and have a good time. They turn to alcohol and drugs to bring them the fun and games. Although illegal, they find ways to get alcohol and use it to their advantage. “We’d find a party where we know there is underage drinking. We would seal the house, surround it with officers, and we would write every single underage person coming out of that house a ticket. We wrote hundreds and hundreds of tickets those years. All we did was push it farther underground” (Streeter). This passage claims to show how underage kids will drink at parties, be willing to get caught, and when they get caught, it just gives them the drive to keep on drinking at the next party trying to sneak it in. The only thing enforcing the drinking age is the police and law, and when they bust kids, they drive this problem even farther down to the next stage of sneaking alcohol. Teenagers and young adults under the age of 21 have a large problem with underage drinking, and thus this, there are unlimited numbers of tickets and MIP’s that have changed and altered kids’ actions which in return usually drive them to drink even more.

Next, another big problem with the drinking age being 21 is the facts that when the age of 21 is reached, alcohol can be legally consumed and purchased while you are also able to drive. “And think about that analogy. It would never occur to us to say to a young person once they reach the driving age, “Here are the keys. Good luck. Go figure it out” (Streeter). This goes to show that as being able to drive at 16, when you turn 21 there is more of an urge and encouragement to drink and drive since it’s legal to do both. But you can get in huge amounts of trouble for combining the two. Alcohol is everywhere around today’s society and especially around minors. There are massive urges on teens to drink nowadays and every second there are nearby sources of alcohol.

In the end, the drinking age could be lowered and be functionally well. It all depends on the person, and if they chose to abuse or live by it. I think that if it was made legal to purchase and consume alcohol at the age of 18, then teens and young adults would realize that it’s not just a source for fun, and that it’s very cost worthy and that in the end, it doesn’t do you much good. In today’s society, with all the underage drinking present, I don’t think much could go possibly more wrong and that lessons being taught now are effective enough to fix this problem. Lastly, I believe that if you can serve to protect and die for your country, then you should legally be able to drink a beer.



Works Cited
Streeter, Ruth. “The Debate on Lowering the Drinking Age.” 60 Minutes, CBS News.
11-14-09. Web.