The issue of the right age of drinking has been an issue of public debate for a long time giving rise to statements such as "someone old enough to join the military should be allowed to drink alcohol.'' The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that in the year 2004 more than 1600 deaths of students, 695,000 assaults and 600,000 injuries were related to excessive alcohol drinking (Cheng et al., 2018). Therefore, given these figures, it is important to have the issue addressed for the sake of the country's youth. In the USA, an adult is a person who has attained the age of 18 and with the title of an adult, they obtain great responsibilities such as registering for the military, gambling and even the right to vote. An adult is properly distinguished from a child as independent, responsible and smart but in America, those below the age of twenty-one cannot take part in one of the most popular recreational activities; drinking (Cheng et al., 2018). The age for drinking should be lowered to 18 from 21 years and all adults given the privilege of taking alcoholic drinks.
For particular professions such as the US military, members have great responsibilities such as piloting planes, using guns and other advanced ammunition. These members hold the lives of many people in the palm of their hands and all these responsibilities are often handled by an 18-year-old adult trusted by the government to have the capability to manage them (Tan et al., 2015). If the military entrusts 18-year-olds with all these responsibilities, they should also be able to drink and do it responsibly.
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Unfortunately, binge drinking is a large epidemic in the United States, and it is clear the drinking age currently in place has contributed to it. There are several causes of incidents related to alcohol and one of them is binge drinking. Binge drinking is most common among individuals with the age of 18-20 compared to alcohol users above the age of 21 (Esser et al., 2017). This is because whenever teenagers get the opportunity to go out at night to drink, they tend to drink heavily since they rarely get such opportunities. If the law lowers the age to 18 there are chances of having less beige drinking among teenagers. The decrease in alcohol intake will also help solve other related problems such as liver disease, cases of sexual assaults, and teenagers’ underperformance in school all related to excessive intake of alcohol ( Jayne et al., 2016). Lowering the drinking age will ensure constant availability of alcohol to people over the age of 18 and that way they will drink with moderation because they are not pressured to drink
The legal drinking age in the United States is 21 years but it is a fact that teenagers under the legal age still drink. For a long time, this has continued until the police can no more concentrate on eradicating underage alcohol drinking (Kuntsche et al., 2016). Authorities are now directing their efforts towards controlling it so that nobody will get hurt. If the government lowers the age, organizations and schools could address the issue head to head. The situation is not talked about in organizations and schools because they have trouble assuming that the kids are really going against the law. Therefore, if the law lowers the age of drinking the issue could be addressed openly and responsible drinking practiced. This open discussion is however hard to conduct at the moment because under the age of twenty-one a person cannot drink and something illegal cannot be promoted.
The subject of lowering the age of drinking is very sensitive because of the drinking-related problems in the United States. From the year 1997-2002 cases of driving while drunk went up by 27% with many of these incidents attributed to underage drinking involving people between the ages of 18-21years (Hingson et al., 2017). Most people against lowering the drinking age argue that if the legal drinking age is lowered it would increase the exposure of people to this terrible epidemic and endanger the lives of these young adults due to availing alcohol to them and those with whom they share the roads (Jewett et al., 2015).
Opposers of reducing the legal drinking age reason that the age twenty-one is recommended by the law because individuals younger than that are not responsible enough to handle alcohol as they will endanger their lives and that of others (Xuan et al., 2015). However, youths below the age of 21 are allowed to put their lives in danger working for the military and fighting in the frontlines, firing guns at each other and use dangerous tools and machines for killing yet the same person is not allowed to buy a drink for the fear that the youths can hurt others and themselves. This is quite contradictory and should be amended. If someone below 21 is not responsible enough to take alcohol, then they should not be able to join the military and be responsible directly for other people's lives. If the responsibility of holding a firearm and firing a bullet at another person is given to an eighteen-year-old youth in the United States, they should be allowed to have an alcoholic drink.
The significance of the matter should be seriously considered, and the drinking age lowered to 18 years. Responsibility is a huge part of drinking because if a person cannot make the correct decisions while drinking it raises the probabilities of someone ending up in jail, hurt or sometimes lead to death. If the same governments entrust an 18-year-old adult with a great responsibility such as being in a military, becoming a parent or even getting married, then it should also entrust them with drinking responsibly. Lowering the drinking age may reduce cases of binge drinking between 18-21-year-olds and enable authorities and other agencies to promote responsible drinking habits among young adults. Standardizing the age at which people are deemed responsible for making major decisions for their lives to 18 years of age will be a step in the right direction with regards to alcohol control among youths aged between 18 and 21 years of age.
Reference
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Jayne, M., Valentine, G., & Holloway, S. L. (2016). Alcohol, drinking, drunkenness:(Dis) orderly spaces . Routledge.
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