lowering drinking age to eighteen
...ere and will be given an education by someone. The lessons of alcohol should be learned at home. In Europe, many children (and I do not use the word "children" loosely) begin drinking in a social context with their parents by the early to mid-teens. In France, many families include wine as a part of the daily dinner, and in England, it is legal for a person to have an alcoholic beverage, in a public restaurant, with a parent, at the age of 16. So why is it that in America, we consider people who have wine every night to be alcoholics, and associate 16-year-olds who drink with stomach pumps? It seems to me that Americans have created an artificial problem with drinking, which precludes us from imbibing in the same fashion as Europeans. The fundamental difference lies in learned responsibility. Europeans teach their children to drink responsibly, whereas in America, children grow up being told that alcohol is as deadly as cancer. Kids are drilled for years about the harmful effects of alcohol, yet often see adults drink. The result is that when these children grow into teenagers, their curiosity heightens, and they raise their glasses without knowing quite what they are doing. These teens do not know their tolerance levels, or which drinks mix and which do not, and that is why some people’s first experiences with alcohol are played out to the tune of sirens and emergency room jargon. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen and having parents monitor their child’s drinking would be better and they would learn to drink responsibly. The funny thing is, you can serve people alcohol at eighteen, but you can’t buy it. There is something wrong with that. People have enough trust in an eighteen year old to drive a massive tank carrying a nuclear missile in to Iraq, but you can’t be trusted with a beer. Many people agree that drinking age should be eighteen. One should be able to do what any other adult can do, including having an occasional drink at a bar, restaurant, club, or any other place that serves alcohol. If the drinking age was lowered to eighteen many young adults would end up drinking in controlled environments. Such as taverns, restaurants, taverns, pubs and bars. Responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs. Most of the population under the age of twenty-one drink in an irresponsible manner because drinking is like a forbidden fruit, it’s also like a symbol of adulthood. So it’s more tempting to do it and if drinking was less tempting to young adults there wouldn’t be as much abuse of it in our society. Drinking is a privilege. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen, more people would have an understanding of it. Many more young adults will have much more respect for everything if they were treated more as adults than adolescents. They wouldn’t abuse the right of drinking as much, and there would be a significant decrease in binge drinking. When you turn eighteen your life as an adult begins and you get so much reasonability bestowed upon you. Instead of punishing underage drinking, t...