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Mason Leach
Ms. Grant
UWRT 1103
10 November 2014
Drinking Age:
Is It Doing More Harm Than Helping
Alcohol has become an instrument of harm for many young Americans. So much
in young adults lives depends on the concept of blending in and being popular. Many
teenagers fall subject to alcohol abuse for the simple reason of rebellion. Because the
legal drinking age in the United States is currently 21 years of age, many adolescents
illegally consume alcohol to gain popularity and show off to their friends and peers.
Consuming alcohol under the age of 21 is punishable by $365 fine on average. Money is
not the only thing lost by underage consumption; excessive drinking, or binge drinking, is
responsible for more than 4,300 annual deaths concerning underage consumption. Binge
drinking is in direct correlation to the drinking age. Adolescents who cannot legally drink
alcohol in public proceed to excessively drink, or pregame, before going out to the club
or bar. This problem is extremely prevalent in American colleges. Although many
young adults go off to college with an exaggerated sense of freedom and self-confidence,
they are not legally able to consume alcohol. With alcohol being so dominant in college
towns, it is inevitable for an underage college student not to be in the presence of alcohol
at some point in time. Also, if an underage drinkers friends are of legal age to consume
alcohol, it makes gaining access to such a substance very obtainable. Alcohol is a very
dominant substance in America, but there needs to be something done about the underage

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death and consumption. The current laws regarding underage drinking are causing
unnecessary problems that can be solved if the drinking age is lowered.
When a person in the United States turns 18, the government views them as
adults. At 18 years old a person can vote, sign agreements, smoke a cigarette, and even
enlist in the United States military. If a person is allowed to lose their life for this
country, how is it right the government should be able to tell them that they cant have a
sip of alcohol. Because a person in the United States feels like he or she is of legal age to
do almost everything in the U.S. and 18, they assume that they should be able to drink.
When they realize that the drinking age is 21 many people just disregard the laws put
forth and drink anyways. Alcohol is the most abused substance in Americas youth, even
more than tobacco and unlawful drugs. According to the CDC, (Center for Disease
Control and Prevention) people aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed
in the United States. They also go on to say that, More than 90% of this alcohol is
consumed in the form of binge drinks. Because these numbers are so out of control, the
police have a hard time keeping up with all of the incidents. In fact, it is quite impossible
for the government to control the youth of America from drinking. Law enforcement
does their best to keep underage drinking under control but even the police let illegal
consumption slide. It just makes sense, lowering the drinking age to 18 would help to
start young drinkers on the right path instead of the ways of binge drinking and drunk
driving.
There are countless reasons that the minimum drinking age should be lowered in
the U.S. By giving 18 year olds the right to drink, the U.S. would greatly reduce unsafe
drinking activity. It would allow them to drink in regulated areas such as bars and would

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help to provide a source of supervision of binge drinking and dangerous drinking
behaviors. Many countries have already lowered their drinking ages to 18. In these
countries, fatalities and drunk driving accidents are greatly reduced. European countries
whose minimum legal drinking age is lower than 21 reported having decreased alcohol
related accidents.
Traffic fatalities are a main cause of death in the United States. Over 40,000
people are killed in the U.S. each year due to car accidents. One person is injured every
minute of every day by a drunk driver in this country. The decrease in drunk driving
deaths as a percent of total traffic fatalities has no correlation to the minimum legal
drinking age. Since 1982, two years prior to the Uniform Drinking Age Act establishing
an MLDA of 21, a decline of drunk driving fatalities occurred across all age groups and
demographic categories, and therefore cannot be reliably attributed to MLDA
21.(Drinking Age ProCon.org)
The youth in America is a very rebellious group of people. They are always
looking to rebel in many different ways. Because the legal drinking age in the U.S. is 21,
many adolesences look to drinking alcohol as a way of rebelling from their parents and
even the law. If the U.S government would lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 the
so-called thrill of breaking the law would be practically eliminated. This is extremely
widespread in American colleges. Regularizing the consumption of alcohol would greatly
reduce the urge of youth to drink just for the excitement of protesting the power of their
parents and law enforcement. Because of this rebellion, many underage drinkers have
high rates of non-compliance with other drinking related laws. The use of false
identification to purchase alcohol is a major concern. Felony offenses of use of a fake

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i.d. can result in as much as a $100,000 fine, 10 years in jail, or 12 months probation.
Granted these punishments are the extremes of punishment, but imagine being punished
by one of these penalties just for trying to purchase alcohol under the age of 21. Drinking
is a enjoyable activity to partake in, why should people who are considered adults not be
allowed to enjoy it when other pleasant activities are allowed at 18 years of age.
Money plays a huge part in the underage drinking debate. The cost of underage
drinking in 2010 was 62.0 billion dollars. This number ties in all of the work loss,
medical care, and pain and suffering associated with the many troubles resulting from
alcohol abuse by our youth. The direct costs of underage drinking sustained through
medical care and loss of work cost the united states $25,131 million every year or about
$1.29 per drink consumed in the U.S. Looking at the bigger picture, the average drink in
the United States costs $1.22, resulting in a loss of 7 cents per drink.(Underage Drinking
Costs) Now that may not sound like that much when you look at the cost per drink. But
when you consider the amount of alcohol consumed and the amount of people in the
United States that drink; you are looking at a very large amount of money that could
possibly be saved just from reducing the legal age of alcohol consumption.
Take a step into a college town and immediately you will see how much alcohol
is consumed on a regular basis. College students are the biggest demographic of underage
drinkers in the United States. Coming straight out of high school, many of these students
have tried or been around alcohol before coming to college. Its quite obvious and can
easily be proven just by looking at a young persons social media page. Because kids at
this age feel almost invincible and drinking is a good way for kids to be defiant and go
wild, many scholars and authors believe that lowering the drinking age will completely

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rid us of this problem. According to Jessica Ogilvie of the Los Angeles Times, In 2008,
more than 130 college chancellors and presidents signed a petition in support of lowering
the drinking age from 21 to 18. Why is that? Obviously to be a president of a university
you must have some knowledge of underage drinking and the effects it has on Americas
youth. Which is exactly why these chancellors and presidents signed this petition to lower
the drinking age. They realize that all the drinking age is doing for their students is
causing a list of problems, starting with possibly giving their school a bad reputation.
College students always have and always will consume alcohol whether or not it is legal
for them or not. It is a huge part of coming into ones adulthood and there is no better
place to become an adult than college. By reducing the drinking age to 18, the
government could help to reduce the tickets acquired by underage drinkers, reduce the
amount of alcohol related deaths, help to give legal adults the recognition that they
deserve, and lastly help to eliminate a law that is largely ineffective thats only real
purpose is contributing to a great deal of misfortune.
Whether youre of legal age to drink alcohol or not, the problems regarding the
drinking age need to be dealt with. The United States government cannot keep taking
freedom away from the people that they call legal adults. It is causing rebellion and this
rebellion will not stop until something is done to either change the minds of young people
or change the laws of America. Unknowingly they are creating an incredible amount of
problems for the youth of America and could reverse it by simply changing one law.
Lower the drinking age.

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Works Cited
Amoah, Stephen. "Lower the Legal Drinking Age." Lower the Legal Drinking Age.
N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

Cloud, John. "Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?" Time. Time Inc., 06 June
2008.
Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

"Drinking Age ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.