Underage Drinking- Pros and Cons
The United States of America is one of the few countries where alcohol is illegal until 21, and people argue weather it should be lowered to 18 like many European countries, or should stay at 21. But people arguing both want to achieve the same goal; children have to be healthy, drink responsibly and be educated of the matter. Kids who don't know their limits can drink so much they get alcohol poisoned!
Dr.David Hanson believes that the legal age for drinking should be pushed even higher than it is now! He says that fewer adults drink in this century, but when they do they tend to drink a lot more. Researchers suggest that drinking should be kept at 21 because the brain doesn't finish maturing before 25, but then should the legal drinking age not also be pushed in that case?
But if you can join the army, and you can vote, then why cant you have a beer? European countries such as France, Spain, Portugal and Italy all have the drinking age at 18, and "there is no evidence that it harms them intellectually or behaviorally" (Ogilvie, 2). The problem is not the age it becomes legal, it's that people are uneducated about how alcohol harms the body.
James Fell seems to think that 21 is a reasonable age for legalizing alcohol. Drinking in 10th and 12th grade has gone down ever since the drinking age was raised to 21. "There's no reason to fix what isn't broken" (Ogilvie, 2). The drinking age at 21 saves lives period.
After reading the article, I wondered what my opinion on the subject was. I was really intrigued when the author writes about how the drinking age should be kept to 21. The writer had evidence to back up her statements, and really persuaded me. For example "In the 1970s, a number of states lowered the drinking age from 21 to 18, we saw an increase in alcohol consumption by youth. When it was raised back to 21 in 1984, we saw lower consumption of alcohol, and we've kept those low rates." (Ogilvie, 2)
But the author shows bias when talking about the legal age lowering again to 18. She states that if you pretty much become an adult at 18, you should be able to grab a beer.
After reading this article, my opinion is that kids these days don't know enough about drinking and what it does to your body. I think neither 18 nor 21 is a good age for drinking if you know not enough about alcohol poisoning. Knowledge can help the rates of youths drinking, not a legal age.
