Drinking Age Should Be Lowered | Teen Ink

Drinking Age Should Be Lowered

May 18, 2008
By Anonymous

People use alcohol for numerous reasons; peer pressure, celebration, anxiety, sadness, boredom, rebellion and insomnia are just a few. Teens fall under the category of “people”. The legal drinking age is currently twenty-one, but illegally drinking age is as low as zero. Why? Is the main question asked. I can assure you the under age drinking age percentage would drop if the age is lowered.

Few reasons for teens drinking are: peer pressure, enjoyment, etc. But the main reason for doing so is “breaking the law.” 87% of high school seniors have used alcohol. That means that a large quantity of teens under the age of seventeen to eighteen have used alcohol before. We all know why teens drink, I mean is common since. Just the feel that they get of breaking the law is huge. Being rebel and not following the rules is an important role of a teen’s life. Consequences are the one that change them, but we don’t want them to experience the consequences of being under the influence of alcohol because we know them and they are fatal. Dying in a car accident and killing others is a mess that we don’t want to clean.

Despite the fact that is illegal for young teens to purchase it, they are able to get it through their parent’s own liquor cabinets, unscrupulous store clerks, or older friends who purchase it for them. As we all see, is not hard for teens to obtain alcohol. Why not lower the drinking age then? I mean any way you put it, they are getting it.

We have all heard of the famous saying “we want you to join the military and protect your country.” Blah blah blah. Well, you are telling me that I can legally kill someone at the age of eighteen, while I sign up with the military and go to war but I can’t have a sip of alcohol. Due to this none senseless situation, age should be equaled. In other words, if voting and military sign up is eighteen, then drinking should also be eighteen. Besides at the age of eighteen you are legally an adult. Why can’t we drink then?

Drinking age in Australia is eighteen, and in UK is as low as sixteen in restaurants. Studies have showed that those teens/adults are perfectly fine. In fact, Dr. Ruth Engs; professor of Applied Health Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington, uses this examples to propose the following: “……the drinking age be lowered to about 18 or 19 and permit those of legal age to consume in socially controlled environment such as restaurants and official school and university functions” (direct quote from Dr. Engs).

Drinking age should be lowered, and I know that by lowering it we can drop the percentage of reckless teen alcohol abusers. It is worth trying it , and if everything goes the opposite then change the law once more (which is done lots of times, for dumb reasons) and raise the drinking age back to twenty-one. Changes are always good (most of the times), and I know this one in particular is an excellent one.


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This article has 740 comments.


on Jun. 2 2015 at 5:07 pm
AshleySD BRONZE, Campbell, California
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I agree with you. If people are mature enough to be in the military, they should be able to drink. But it's not healthy.

on Jun. 2 2015 at 5:06 pm
AshleySD BRONZE, Campbell, California
1 article 1 photo 90 comments
Haha calm down

on Jun. 2 2015 at 5:05 pm
AshleySD BRONZE, Campbell, California
1 article 1 photo 90 comments
I see both sides, but I think that we should keep the drinking age where it is.

on Jun. 2 2015 at 2:27 pm
AshleySD BRONZE, Campbell, California
1 article 1 photo 90 comments
But some consequences of drinking don't just affect the drinker. If someone gets drunk and runs over a child, that was their fault that the child died. The logical fallacy you used is very common. But comparing two things doesn't mean that there's a connection between them.

billy5128 said...
on Mar. 11 2015 at 4:06 pm
Well said Mike123 I also agree with you 100%

boink101 said...
on Feb. 27 2015 at 10:03 am
@chrisrhode

on Feb. 24 2015 at 10:27 am
Kye-Elipse BRONZE, Cornish, Utah
2 articles 0 photos 23 comments

Favorite Quote:
Don't tell tell me the SKY is the limit when there are footprints on the MOON

i am thinking about joining the Navy and i agree we should lower the drinking age limit. i think this is 100% true if we can kill for our country at age 17 (with parent consent) then you should be allowed to drink any alcoholic beverage. my vote is change the law on drinking.!

on Jan. 27 2015 at 10:25 am
ashley swenson, Maple Plain, Minnesota
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
The only reason why people do heroin is because either there life is terrible and want to be in there own little world or they need the high... and alcohol gives you a different high then heroin so i dont know why you compared them in the first place... you dont do heroin to be a rebel. Something usually leads up to heroin like smoking weed and doing coke and then when that high isnt good enough anymore then people do heroin, and if they were to lower the age on drinking then a lot more people would be staying out of trouble and not worring about getting caught drinking under age. so there would be less people trying to be rebels and doing dumb things

on Jan. 14 2015 at 3:09 pm
rosevomit BRONZE, Cornish, Utah
4 articles 0 photos 40 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Marijuana is bad." -Adults

if we no longer have alchohol to rebel with we will start rebelling with heroin and ice. let the laws be

on Oct. 15 2014 at 3:33 pm
Hedgehoglover10 SILVER, Evergreen, Colorado
6 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
Life is too short to be anyone but yourself.

You liked to repeat yourself, and I have to say I do NOT agree. They have the drinking age that way because the goverment thinks that 21 is the age where you can handle drinking responsibly. Also at 21 your body can digest alcohol with out getting sick. I strongly disagree with this opinion and think you should check over your work before posting it.

mr895 said...
on Oct. 1 2014 at 11:20 pm
First off, you have many gramatical errors and your wording is off. You have valid points to your argument, but even if we lower the drinking age then all teens will start drinking. At their age, their brain is still developing, therefore, if they start to drink their brain will prematurely stop growing. Also, if we go through with lowering the drinking age what if younger generations start to drink do we lower it even more? At the age of 21 your brain stops its growing process, and you can make more rational and more adult decisions because your brain would be fully grown. I believe keeping the drinking age at 21 keeps teens from drinking because they are afraid of consequences. Yes, some will still find ways to drink, but only some. Keeping this law prevents and or limits teens for being under the influence and harming themselves or others. This world is not perfect, so there will always be that group of people going against the law, and there is nothing we can do to prevent that. This law is there for a reason, and there is no need to change that. 

on Oct. 1 2014 at 4:46 pm
i dissagrey with this

at the age of 18 we are already able to drive,vote,and join the military but these things are alredy hard enoph as is but if we add alcohol to that mix is pushing it to a deadly mix that alot of us will either die from or regret after we do something stupid that alcohol makes us do
 

on Sep. 30 2014 at 10:34 am
Braxton Borkholder, Bremen, Indiana
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
I 100% agree!!!!!!!!!!!

Ron said...
on May. 15 2014 at 12:57 pm
You can't say that

Xandi said...
on May. 14 2014 at 11:32 am
Xandi, Mckinney, Texas
0 articles 0 photos 15 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Cinderella never asked for a prince. She asked for a night off and a dress." -Kiera Cass

I like the idea and think it's smart, but with changing or lowering the age at all, it could lead younger teens who may not drink or drink very little, to drink more. 'If they're lowering the age anyway, then I should be allowed to drink' or something along those lines. Then also, you said that you and a lot of otherpeople want this and would be responsible with it, but there's also a lot of people who won't be. As majority, there would be a lot of teens who would abuse that sort of thing. Sorry, I'm not trying to bring down your idea and think that it really is smart, but like other things, we would have to expect people to abuse the system, not unlike anything else.

duuuude said...
on Feb. 28 2014 at 11:23 am
all these ppl that make these sites for lowering the legal drinking age to 18 need to be fired. they do not know the difference between pros and cons. OFF WITH THEIR HEAD!!!!!

Freytex29 said...
on Feb. 24 2014 at 3:32 pm
This essay was very well written and well argued and I'm in agreement. Must point out though, there is a clause in military doctrine that says anyone in the US military shall be allowed to drink, regardless of age. I used this essay in a debate and brought the service point to the table and was shut down. So just for reference!

stlredbirds said...
on Dec. 12 2013 at 1:49 am
I have to admit, the points you make are logical and true, those who can lay down their lives in military, and be a legal adult, ought to be able to drink. The only problem is that some people do not finish growth until low twenties in age, specifically men. Also, they really ought to not be drinking at all, lowering the legal age would only be promoting a drink that at the end of the day is of no good to anyone. I also don't think people do it to break the law because they are teens and want to rebel...most people drink to avoid their problems, or for social events and parties. I think this article could additionally have been written better, it comes across as childish even if some points are valid.

pan1c BRONZE said...
on Nov. 19 2013 at 3:45 pm
pan1c BRONZE, New London, Connecticut
1 article 0 photos 28 comments
I like this idea, but I think had you presented it more maturely and supported your argument with more than just opinionated beliefs, your article would have been more convinving. However, it was a clever topic and brought a new perspective. Nice job.

on Nov. 14 2013 at 2:02 pm
I think that it should be lowered to 18 bc it's more better bc the kids already grown