Should the Legal Drinking Age?

¶ … Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18 RESOLVED: At present the minimum legal drinking age of 21 years of age is controlled by the federal government by means of federal highway funds. This strips states of their right to self-govern and the higher MLDA is inconsistent with other rights allowed 18-year-olds.

PRO: In favor of lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years of age Premise 1: studies showing a decline in alcoholic incidents are misleading Premise 2: the current law is not deterring under age drinking Premise 3: the minimum legal drinking age of 21 years is socially unjust Premise 4: it is now a political rather than a social issue The minimum legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 years of age to reinstate individual and states' rights.

The debate over the minimum legal drinking age can be heard on campuses and in state legislative halls throughout the country. Although there might have been good intentions for the current legal drinking age of 21, there are many factors that cannot be ignored in favor of lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years. Research shows a decrease in problems associated with drinking and driving that has paralleled a decrease in the per capita consumption of alcohol, but the declines started in 1980 (Engs 1b).

This was before Congress passed the law in 1985 requiring states to raise the legal drinking age to 21 or risk losing federal highway funds. Many factors play into these decreases. Public awareness has brought about drunk driving educational programs, the designated driver programs, and increased usage of seat belts and air bags (Engs 1b). Moreover most states have passed and enforce tougher DUI laws over the last twenty years.

The problems associated with driving and drinking have not decreased due to raising the legal drinking age to 21 years old.Among the 'binge' drinkers (those consuming over five drinks at one sitting at least once a week), eighteen percent of students over age 21 classify themselves as heavy drinkers compared to twenty-two percent of those under 21 years of age (Engs 1b).

So even though drunk driving problems have decreased over the last two decades, there has been an increase in lower grades, missing classes, getting into fights and vomiting after drinking (Engs 1b). Society's approach to controlling underage drinking is not working and is in fact counterproductive (Engs). Hypocrisy is another issue concerning the current minimum legal drinking age. At 18 years of age a person may live on his own (White 2c). He may pay rent and utilities. He or she may also be issued a credit card thus incurring debt.

He or she may at 18 years of age commit themselves for the rest of their lives to another person in marriage (White 2c). And certainly we all know that any 18-year-old can become an aren't. Eighteen-year-olds are not only allowed but encouraged to vote in the election for the highest office in the country. In fact it is their duty. And the males are accepted and expected to die for their country's freedoms (White 2c). But an 18-year-old doesn't have the freedom to drink a beer.

Someone somewhere decided that he could take on all of the adult roles of society except this one (White 2c). There are states such as Wisconsin who have over the years introduced bills to lower the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years, but have met with little success due to the threat of losing federal highway funds (Schaub p14a). Few states, if any, can afford to lose federal funding. Wisconsin would stand to lose over twenty million dollars per year.

That is incentive enough to keep the minimum legal drinking age at 21 years, regardless whether it's working or meeting objectives (Schaub p14a). Twenty-one is not a magic age for maturity. If we are to grant serious legal rights such as marriage, voting, debt, and parenting to an 18-year-old then we should also grant him the legal right to buy a beer (Madison p7a). If we expect our 18-year-olds to serve in the military and to kill or be killed to protect our country's freedoms then we should allow.