Living in America, being able to legally drink at the age of twenty-one seems to be a right of passage that many young adults can’t seem to wait for. Many argue that legalizing alcohol consumption below the age of twenty-one would be detrimental to the safety of our youth, because it is believed that they aren’t responsible enough to consume alcohol. Unfortunately, people under the age of twenty-one are finding ways to get alcohol and are often consuming it in dangerous amounts in uncontrolled environments. Is this epidemic happening because eighteen year-olds are irresponsible, or is it because they were never taught how to drink responsibly? While some may believe that the only way to battle this dangerous habit it to preach abstinence until the legal age of twenty-one, there are many that are seeing this law to be the actual problem causing this horrifying epidemic. Lowering the drinking age will allow for education on responsible consumption, and lower the mortality rates associated with underage drinking.
It is believed that our national legal drinking age of twenty-one was reached because the government was concerned with underage drinking. Lets discuss why the federal drinking age is at twenty-one. In the early 1980s, President Reagan created a Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving (PCDD) in an attempt to put an end to the drunk driving epidemic that was seen prominent in adult drivers, not teenagers. The commission created recommendations that states were expected to follow to diminish the number of high-way deaths related to citizens driving drunk; in return for following the recommendations, the states would not lose out on federal money to use on their state highways. One of these recommendations, was to raise the legal drinking age to twenty-one. With no questions asked from our state governments and consistent lobbying from the MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) organization, President Reagan signed the National Minimal Drinking Age Act of 1984 which made the national drinking age twenty-one. The states were concerned with federal funding for their highways, not the drinking age.
Many supporters of the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) being twenty-one belief that no one under the age of twenty-one in the United States is a loud to consume alcohol. Unfortunately, it is time to burst their bubble; this is not the case. According to the MLDA law, there are eight different exceptions allowing adults under the age of twenty-one to consume alcohol. Under one of the exceptions, According to the Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS),
some states allow an exception to possession, consumption, or internal possession prohibitions when a family member consents and/or is present. APIS codes two types of family member exceptions. The first is an exception for either the consent or presence of a parent or guardian. The second is an exception for either the consent or presence of the spouse of a married minor.
As of 2010, thirty states allow for this exception, including New York. One can only argue that these exemptions exist simply because state governments understand that it is possible for adults to consume alcohol responsibly under the age of twenty-one.
Some may argue that lowering the drinking age is a viewpoint that is simply shared among young adults that don’t want to wait until they are twenty-one to consume alcohol. The truth is, “over 100 college presidents – including the heads of Dartmouth, Virginia Tech and Duke – signed a declaration stating that the 21-year-old drinking age is not working” (CBS News, 2010). Many of these college presidents have looked at the statistics, and have realized that raising the drinking age has not stopped the death tolls associated with drinking, it has only added to it at an alarming rate.
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