As we all know, the drinking age in the United States is 21. This wasn't true before the 1980's, when the drinking age was 18. Debates over whether or not this policy makes sense occur on a daily basis between teens, adults, and experts alike. If America deems 18-year olds mature enough to drive, vote, purchase firearms (rifles and shotguns), serve on a jury in a court of law, and join the military, why should the drinking age be any higher?
Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920's didn't stop Americans from drinking. Alcohol moved onto the black market and smugglers profitted. Some say that history is repeating itself.
Dr. David J. Hanson is a sociologist at the State University of New York at Potsdam who has studied alcohol and drinking for more than 40 years. According to the, LA Times, Hanson believes that "Right now we basically have alcohol prohibition for adults ages 18 to 20, and we are getting some of the same results we got through national prohibition in the early 20th century. Fewer young adults drink, but when they do drink they tend to drink more, and I'm mostly concerned about drinking to excess...When you prohibit drinking legally, it pushes it into places that are uncontrolled, like fraternity houses. These are places that promote drinking games and excessive, rapid consumption of alcohol, which puts people in danger of getting alcohol poisoning, and that can be fatal." Hanson moved on to point out that no scientific evidence has shown that lower drinking ages lead to adverse behavioral or intellectual development.
John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, is a major proponent of lowering the drinking age to 18. "This law has been an abysmal failure. It hasn't reduced or eliminated drinking. It has simply driven it underground, behind closed doors, into the most risky and least manageable of settings," McCardell told 60 minutes on CBS News. McCardell argues that lowering the drinking age would actually keep kids safer.
The minimum legal drinking age in all countries of the world, excepting Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Sri Lanka, and the United States have a minimum drinking age lower than 21. Yet, the US has the highest percentage of deaths due to drunk driving. The correlation between young age and irresponsible drinking isn't as crystal clear as some may believe.
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