When exactly do you consider yourself grown? When do you think you are grown enough to be capable of making your own life decisions? Once an individual becomes eighteen years of age, they are considered to be an adult in the United States of America. When you turn eighteen, you are provided with many advantages, such as the ability to make your own decisions. At this particular age, you are considered mature enough to make decisions on whether or not you want to attend college, join the military, and given the opportunity to vote on the leader of our country.
However, you are not capable of drinking alcohol legally at the age of eighteen. For many years, a debate has been rising throughout the American society, this debate being over the legal age to consume alcohol. Currently in the United States, the legal age to drink alcohol is twenty-one. Nonetheless, if teenagers are considered to be adults at the age of eighteen, then they should be able to have access to adult privileges. If you can make other legal life decisions at eighteen, then you should be able to decide on whether or not you wish to drink alcohol legally.
Having an alcoholic beverage is not always geared towards bad purposes or intentions. Sometimes, it is believed to be a type of festivity or an approach to ease your mind or relieve some stress. On https://drinkingage.procon.org, it states that drinking alcohol is recognized as a gratifying activity, and it should not be restricted to 18-20 year olds. Being an adult can be stressful, especially for those just turning eighteen because they are just starting to learn to be on their own and handle their problems and decisions. At the age of eighteen, you are presented with all sorts of stress, such as whether college is what you want your next big step to be or what you want to become in life. This age period in life is very stressful and demanding and should be allowed to participate in activities that allow them to have fun legally.
When an individual is experiencing a stressful stage in their life, they should be able to do things that allow them to relax and enjoy their young and inexperienced lives before they are too old to do so. At 18, you are given the freedom to decide on what you want to spend the rest of your life doing, but you are not able to decide whether you want to drink alcohol. Eighteen year olds are denied the right to drink, but are given rights to engage in other activities that may allow them to feel pleased. These activities include using tobacco or smoking cigarettes. In a way, having to wait until you are twenty-one to drink is treating everybody as if they are children until they reach the age requirement. However, children cannot make major life decisions.
Being a part of the military is a big sacrifice, as well as a big decision. Yet, you are capable of making this decision at the age of 18. The decision to join the military and serve our country requires a someone with full maturity. We are allowing eighteen year olds to decide if they are willing to put their lives on the line for their country. Eighteen year olds are given the right to decide to leave their homes and loved ones for long periods of times and travel to a foreign country where there is limited communication, but somehow, they cannot be trusted to drink in a responsible and moderate manner. In the article, “Underage Drinking and the Drinking Age,” Carla T. Main mentions that eighteen year olds are acknowledged to be old enough to die for their country, but are not allowed to have a beer. All throughout America, people are being drafted into war.
If an eighteen-year old can go to war to fight for his or her country’s freedom, then they should have the ability to drink if they please. From the article, “Age Discrimination for the Young,” Froma Harrop says that the drinking age has been a tug-of-war for quite a long time. “Is a 19-year-old mature enough to fight in Afghanistan, but not order a beer in a bar?” Froma questions. In the Daily KOS newspaper article, Mark E. Anderson argues that if the drinking age requirement cannot be lowered in a safe protocol, then the age to join the military should be risen to twenty-one. In the newspaper article, Anderson presents a statement by Gabrielle Glaser. She claims that raising the legal drinking age to twenty-one has not reduced underage drinking, but instead provoked it to be “driven underground.” Both Anderson and Glaser believe that lowering the drinking age to eighteen makes more sense, considering all the other legal rights you are given at the age of eighteen.
Along with these legal rights, you are also given the opportunity to vote in elections, such as voting for the leader of our country, our President. Just like joining the military, voting in an election for our President requires someone to have full maturity. Someone who is not eligible to drink alcohol legally should not be able to take a part in such big elections. They should not be able to give their opinions on the leader of our country, when they are still looked as “too young” for drinking purposes. We are allowing eighteen year olds the chance to vote on our President of our country, allowing it to affect every citizen that lives in the United States of America. In the article, “National Drinking Age Should Be Lowered to 18,” Alexis Aguiree’s argues that we allow eighteen years old the right to vote, but we still make them wait until they are twenty-one to consume alcohol. She also states that the minimum drinking age of 21 is not lowering the underage drinking situation, but pushing the problem behind closed doors.
It is common knowledge that teenagers will find ways to get ahold of alcohol, regardless of the minimum drinking age. If the drinking age were to be lowered, there would be less sneaking around and people would be more responsible with their drinking. In the article, “Will Increasing Alcohol Availability by Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths,” Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson provide statistics that show that heavy drinking and daily alcohol use has declined among young adults aged 18 to 20 years since the early 1980s. Whereas, the drinking behavior for those aged 21 to 24 years have been more gradual and consistent. This age range also has an increased number in binge drinking. However, those aged among 18 to 20 years have remained stable for both college students and their peers who are not in college. From the article,
“Alcholism Drug Abuse Weekly,” John McArdell, president emeritus of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, states that underage drinking is not the problem. He claims that the problem is that underage drinking is now enforced off campus, which is leading to dangerous and terrible binge drinking. Also, McArdell suggests that college students should learn to drink responsibly in college. If we are given sex education, responsible drinking education would not be something that is out of the ordinary. David J. Hanson, professor emeritus of sociology at the State University of New York, Potsdam, recommended that there should be a drinker’s permit for eighteen year olds, which is somewhat similar to a driving learner’s permit for fifteen year olds. As well as, Hanson advised that eighteen year olds should have certain restrictions if the drinking age were lowered.
These restrictions consist of having a parent or guardian around when drinking or even drinking in the student union where adult supervision is present. The extreme measures of the drinking age only causes 18-20 year olds to feel overly encouraged to drink in highly intense manners, but if the age requirement were to be lowered, then they would be able to drink responsibly and in moderate amounts. Individuals would not feel the need to hide their desire to drink and enjoy their times. Therefore, it would implement a safe and controlled environment overall.
At the age of eighteen, you are considered a legal adult who is capable of making major life-changing decisions for yourself. Along with these specific decisions, you should be able to make the decision on whether you want to consume alcohol, if that is what you desire to do. At 18, individuals are given opportunities and rights to make decisions on things like college, military, and even put their input in on our national elections. When thinking about lowering the drinking age, ask yourself whether we should really trust these eighteen year olds to fight for an entire nation, or even have an opinion on who the leader of our country should be, if we do not trust them enough to consume alcohol responsibly?
