Benefits of Lowering Drinking Age

The national drinking age was 18 at one point. I strongly agree that it should revert back, believing it would be more beneficial than consequential. The benefits of lowering the drinking age would be that it would decrease binge drinking among minors and young adults, overall risky and dangerous behavior.

Most states have always had their drinking ages at 21. After the voting age was lowered to 18 with the 26th Amendment in 1971, many states also lowered their drinking ages to 18, 19, and 20. However, in 1984, a car full of teenagers left their home state and crossed into South Dakota because there it was legal for 19-year-olds to buy beer. This led to Congress passing the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which stated that states who didn’t raise their minimum drinking age to 21 will lose 5% of their federal highway funds. Some states were reluctant, but eventually, they agreed to do so.

Today all states abide by that federal law, though penalties given to individuals who are under 21 that are caught with alcohol, or to people who serve alcohol to young adults, vary from state to state. The 21 laws aren’t strictly enforced, and studies show that it’s fairly easy for teenagers to obtain alcohol, albeit through a fake i.d., family member, or friend who is over 21. This shows that even with federal law put into place, alcohol still finds its way into young hands.

Several strategies have been implemented in order to combat this. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, requires all student groups, on and off-campus, to register their social events with the university. If these students plan on serving alcohol, they are required to hire professional bartenders and security guards who check for ids at the entrance. Any unregistered parties are shut down immediately. These requirements can be expensive, costing up to even $90 per hour. Making parties prohibitively expensive to host in accordance to university policy will only push them further off-campus, and underage students looking to drink will go as far as they need to in order to do so. This ultimately shows that this policy may not be very effective, seeing as how it will encourage students to go elsewhere and potentially binge drink without any control.

Many experts believe that consuming alcohol can be more harmful for young adults. Research does show that the brain of a maturing adolescent can tolerate more alcohol with delayed effects than that of an adult. Consumed even in small quantities, alcohol can affect brain development in young people, and in large quantities, it can cause permanent brain damage. This can cause teens to make risky decisions and be a danger to themselves and others. A study conducted by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 22 percent of young drivers involved in fatal car accidents between 2005 and 2014 had consumed alcohol and that 64 percent of young drivers who had been drinking and who were killed in car accidents in 2014 were unrestrained. This research shows that teenage drivers under the influence are less likely to use seat belts.

However, there are experts who also argue that the age should be lowered, seeing as it could potentially end binge drinking among teens. The 21 laws make alcohol taboo, thus driving underage drinking underground and causing more binge drinking to take place than otherwise would, due to the allure of forbidden fruit and the need for secrecy. This shows how alcohol being illegal makes teenagers drink large amounts of it in such a short amount of time, which is dangerous. The drinking age of 21 has encouraged drinking as a rebellious act and has shifted it away from safe and controlled settings.

I believe that the 21 laws should be removed, seeing as how they have outlived their usefulness. First of all, the age of the majority in almost all states is 18. People are allowed to vote, get married, obtain a driver’s license, and get emancipated at age 18, yet to be able to consume alcohol, you have to be 21 years old. People are also allowed to join the military, wield a gun, and die for their country at 18, so it doesn’t make sense that you have to be 21 in order to enjoy a few beers. This leads to a contradictory sense of responsibility. Besides, statistics show that licensed drivers under the age of 21 only account for 17% of fatal alcohol-related crashes. This goes to show that young adults’ drinking isn’t that big of a problem compared to legal-aged drunk driving fatalities. The law is also not very much enforced, seeing as how 68.3 percent of young adults drink, using a fake i.d., or a friend who is 21 years of age. So they might as well

Lowering the drinking age could also be beneficial in making money. Studies show that 78% of teens drink alcohol, and those aged 12 to 20 drink 11% of all the alcohol consumed in the United States. 19.4% of revenue comes from underage drinkers. Imagine how much more if it wasn’t illegal and young adults could actually go out in the open and purchase alcohol. If the government doesn’t want to lower the age then nothing is really going to change. It’s not going to stop teens from consuming alcohol. If anything, it will encourage them to binge drink in secrecy seeing as how it is illegal. That’s also not going to stop them from risky behavior such as getting behind the wheel of a car, the very thing the law is trying to fix.

In conclusion, ever since the late 1980s, 21 has been the legal age to buy alcohol. I believe it should be lowered back to 18, seeing as how it could be more beneficial. Although some state that it can hinder and harm brain development, the results are even worse if it’s through binge drinking, and the 21 laws encourage teens to binge drink. If they aren’t removed, nothing might ever change.

Works Cited

1. Federal Highway Administration. (2018). National Minimum Drinking Age Act.
2. Griggs, R. A. (2015). “Should the drinking age be lowered?” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/10/06/should-the-drinking-age-be-lowered
3. Johnson, J. (2019). “The Debate on Lowering the Drinking Age.” Alcohol.org.
4. Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Miech, R. A., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2016). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2015: Overview, key findings on adolescent drug use. Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.
5. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2022). Underage Drinking. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/underage-drinking
6. National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2021). Alcohol.
7. Powell, K. (2015). “The Case Against Reducing the Drinking Age.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/10/06/should-the-drinking-age-be-lowered/the-case-against-reducing-the-drinking-age
8. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2018). Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. SMA 18-5068, NSDUH Series H-53).
9. Wagenaar, A. C., & Toomey, T. L. (2002). Effects of minimum drinking age laws: Review and analyses of the literature from 1960 to 2000. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement(14), 206-225.
10. Wechsler, H., & Nelson, T. F. (2010). Will increasing alcohol availability by lowering the minimum legal drinking age decrease drinking and related consequences among youths? American Journal of Public Health, 100(6), 986-992.