Drinking Age in The U.S.: at What Age Is It Allowed to Drink Alcohol

Nowadays, drinking alcohol has become practiced and legal everywhere in the world. Every country and culture has its own way of using this substance. In parties, in everyday routine for some, or just as a casual refresher. But not every place in the world has the same legal drinking age. The minimum drinking age in the United States is 21, this age should be lowered to 18, like the other majority countries in the world.

Eighteen is the age of adulthood in the United States, and adults should have the right to make their own decisions about alcohol. At this age an adult is legally able to vote, smoke cigarettes and get married. Why can adults be responsible for the aforementioned, but still are not able to order a drink legally?

By letting all mature adults drink legally in supervised areas, would prevent or decrease unsafe drinking activity. We all heard about pregaming and predrinking in which the goal is to get drunk super fast before going out in order to not buy other drinks or just because you are under-aged to go out. This activity is the cause of a lot of over-dosed, intoxicated under-aged drinkers.

Since mature adults know that they can’t be seen drinking in public, they make sure to do it well in secret and take the hardest liquor they can before going anywhere. We all know that 18 to 20-year-olds are not all angels and do not wait until 21 to drink, instead they drink intensively without supervision which leads to a lot of intoxications. The other side of this is, those who actually wait until they are the legal age to drink, once they hit their 21st, there is just no more control and they usually exaggerate alcohol use since they never really got to get used to it gradually. Prohibiting this age group from drinking in bars, restaurants and other licensed establishments causes them to drink at house parties, fraternities which leads to other unsafe behavior.

I come from Quebec, Canada where the drinking age is at 18 years old. I started getting influenced and going out and drinking illegally around 17 years old, but mostly at 18. By starting at an early age I had a taste of what alcohol is and what it did to me, so I gradually made changes in dosage and made changes for what suited me the best. I moved in Arizona in January 2018 at the age of 20. Once I arrived over here, I knew I was under-aged to drink, I did not feel a rush of wanting to drink badly or to do stupid stuff that illegal drinkers could do. After partying, going out and drinking legally for three years, I had time to calm down and I knew how to drink by testing alcohol in the early ages. I recently got my 21st birthday in Phoenix, but nothing changed because I got used to it before. This same story goes for these young adults in the United States. If the society doesn’t want to see too much of them, usually intoxicated and drinking intensively in private because they know they can’t in public or because they wait until 21 and get over-dosed easily by the excitement and because of their lack of experience then the drinking age should be dropped down to 18.

On the other side of the medal, it is understandable that lowering the drinking age in the United-States would be medically irresponsible. Since the brain is still developing, alcohol consummation could weaken the frontal lobe if not consumed properly and there are always the risks of becoming addict to this substance that is present.

Even though these second-hand reasons support the fact that we should not lower the drinking age, no matter what the drinking age is, at 18, people know that they are adults, there is alcohol everywhere in their surroundings, they usually get influenced by close friends and they get curious. This leads to the consummation or the “tasting” of alcohol in the early ages for most. Since this practice is already started by many once they are adults, why not just bring down the drinking age at 18, that way we are showing our trustworthy towards them and showing our belief that they can handle themselves and take care of their own consequences at the age of 18. And this will most likely lead to more responsible drinkers in the United-States for the future.

To conclude, in despite of alcohol’s negative effects that it could have on young adults, at 18 years old they are adults and should deserve the approbation of the society for alcohol consummation. As an adult, you should technically have the rights to do whatever you want under the condition that you deal with the consequences of your actions.

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