By law, in the United States, an 18 year old can:
- Fight, and die, for our country.
- Vote in all local, state and federal elections.
- Own a home or business.
- Give full sexual consent.
- Be tried as an adult for any crime.
- Put themselves in thousands of dollars of debt.
But, they can't drink a beer.
In 1984, President Reagan passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Although the law didn't officially move the national drinking age to 21, it withheld important highway funds from any state that didn't have their minimum age as 21. President Reagan also passed a law declaring that ice cream was a nutritious food, giving context to what he thought was good for the American people.
All of the stats prior to and after the law was signed, indicate it did help in teen driving accidents. My argument is not that teenagers are good at making decisions. My argument is about fairness. If an 18 year old is considered an adult in our country, then they should be able to make their own decision of whether or not they can/should drink. Soldiers are allowed to go overseas, fight for our country, and then come back home and can't celebrate with alcohol like any other adult 21 and over. Studies have also proven brain development and maturity levels between 18 and 21 year olds are very comparable.
In today's society younger generations use ride sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft at a much higher rate than older generations. The people who drink and drive are going to do so whether they are legally allowed to drink or not. We should focus on showing the harms of drinking and driving in our high schools rather than punish an age group that is legally allowed to do everything else. If we are serious about cracking down on the drunk driving issue in our country, we should lower the drinking age to 18 and enact a zero tolerance law for driving under the influence of alcohol.
I am a 19 year old college student and I see and participate in underage drinking quite often. The law doesn't stop 18-20 year olds from drinking and changing the legal age back to 18 wouldn't create a huge new wave of drinkers.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/15/health/science-drinking-age/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497803
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/when-should-a-person-be-considered-an-adult/comment-page-2/?_r=0
As a college student I am of course biased on this issue and the opinions in this article are my own, 