The minimum legal drinking age in the United States is 21, which is higher compared with most of the countries around the world (Hanson). Some years ago the drinking age was 18 across the country, and many debates took place during that time in order to raise it to 21. After some of those debates, some states decided to make the drinking age 21; however, not all the states joined to that group until later. Now that the whole United States has a minimum legal drinking age of 21, supposedly, there was nothing people could do about it, especially the young people. Through the years it has not been a mystery that this issue has been part of society, and that it has been discussed among people with different opinions. The United States, as a developed country, should have its reasons to keep the drinking age at 21, but thanks to globalization the country would obtain some benefits by lowering it back to 18. Although there are many things involved in the discussion of this topic, people and organizations have to think about the ones that would impact them directly. Students and international students, between 18 and 20 years of age, would stop drinking alcohol illegally, while the economy because of tourism would grow in a certain way. Additionally, the functions of the alcohol advertisements do not aid the idea of keeping young people away from alcohol consumption as the law requires. 

People of all ages are exposed to alcohol ads all the time, and these are found everywhere. One can find alcohol ads on T.V, radio, and posters on the street: however, sometimes the messages or meaning that these ads transmit are not always about alcohol consumption. Lately, ads have a beautiful story behind while the alcohol brand is not shown until the end, just to remind the viewer what is all about. Television was made to everybody and most people around the country have access to it, and with it, people are prone to watch an alcohol ad at any time, no matter if they are watching a sport game, movie, or TV show, they are always exposed. According to Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 196,494, in 25 markets, alcohol advertisements were placed on TV, during different programs, in 2010. Of this huge number, 46,493, which is a 23.7% of the total, were shown on TV during programs where the viewers fall between 2 and 20 years old (MMWR), which consuming alcohol at this age is illegal to the United States' laws.

Although alcohol companies know that these young people are not allowed to drink, they are encouraging them to consumption through the advertisements, because honestly those are very striking and effective. Youth are attracted to alcohol through what they like the most, cars, beaches, good life, and sensual images are the most used in the process of attraction. Companies are focused on selling their products, because as in everything, the more they sell the more money they make. And apparently they seem not to care about the consumer, in other words, they do not care who they are selling to. Companies through these amusing alcohol advertisements, again, do not care about who is being attracted or even encouraged. Alcohol ads will keep existing and being placed on TV, radio, or poster because this is how companies reach to sell their products every day, and consumers will never stop buying alcohol. But until what point is this fair or correct? Most people including young adults between 18 and 20 years old are being captivated, because alcohol ads are selling to everyone, but they have no access to the alcohol products because of their ages. Companies by means of alcohol advertisements are also selling their products to those who legally cannot buy them. It is interesting to see that this kind of business runs legally in one way, where the companies can sell, but young adults cannot buy; however, the alcohol is anyway consumed, and the alcohol ads are shown. In short, if companies can attract young adults is because they might have access to alcohol.  

When young people are students, but they are at home, are not treated as students but children. In the American culture parents respect the 21 laws, which means that teenagers hardly can drink alcohol with their parents' permission. Other mistake American parents do not usually do is to teach their children how to drink, but only because, under the law, they are not supposed to. Parents need to realize that in one point in their children's life, these will at least try alcohol, because the temptations out of the house are numerous. That is a point to think about. Teenagers are being blamed for doing what they do not know, but only because they were given to society without enough education. Teenagers, before going to high school and college where they become more free, need to have some knowledge about drinking alcohol; however, middle schools do not teach that to student because they are not in the age to do it. This education involves parents directly. If parents want their children to behave appropriately when partying, they need to inculcate them the real responsibility of knowing how to drink. Then, when these young adults are in high school and college, they will have some knowledge already earned and will not learn from a bad or unexpected experience.  

Most people agree that high school years are the best time in any body's life because it is the time that students spend time and experience new things with their friends, including drinking alcohol. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, "underage between 12 and 20 drink the 11% of the all alcohol consumed in the United States, and that in 2013, in a period of 30 days, about 35% of the high schoolers drank some amount of alcohol", additionally, according to the Monitoring Future Survey, "68% of the 12th graders had tried alcohol in 2013" (CDC). Based on these statistics, one can see that alcohol consumption is very involved in the students' new experiences during high school. For some of these students it is the first time they have access to alcohol, so they are attracted to it and encourage by others. For those who are not educated from home, the first drunkenness will be something hard to control; however, they will probably try it again because thanks to alcohol they could do what sober cannot. This could have happened for the lucky ones. For other who are not taught from home either, the story of their first time with alcohol could be a little different. Although they will not want to drink anymore, the temptation is always going to exist, so they will drink again anyway.  

When young adults move to college, most of them do not live with their parents, which make them be more independent. So there is not much education teenagers can get from their parents. College life is something new, it is a huge door, which for freshman, is always open for all the new opportunities. As in high school, alcohol play an important role in college students because they have easier access to it than they did during high school. During collage, there are many ways to drink alcohol, there are many people who legally can buy it, and there are many places where to drink it. Additionally, there is neither education nor control over alcohol consumption on campus. Control because it is simply hard to prevent students from drinking, and education because Alcohol Edu does not guarantee that students are always saying the true. Based on a normal student life, he or she is leaving high school and starting college at the age of 18, which means that the expected age to graduate is 21 years old. He or she, as others, likes drinking in college, which means that he or she will drink 3 out of his or her 4 years illegally. This is just one single example, but the reality is that there are many like him or her. Lowering the drinking age to 18, society and institutions would have to focus only on preventing, controlling, and educating students of high school; and college students may have a better education, regarding to alcohol, from high school that is right before going to college. 

Many students from different countries around the world come to the United States to study, finish, or complete their education, especially high education. Some of these students belong to the group of teenagers between 18 and 20 years of age. International students do not only study but also live for a long time in the United States. According to Project Atlas the number of international students have been increasing through the years. The number of international students enrolled in American school grew from 564,766 in 2005 to 947,926 in 2015, and every year the most of the were from countries like India, China, and South Korea (Atlas). Additionally, the minimum legal drinking age in India and China is 18 while in South Korea is 19 (Hanson). This means that many international students, who are 18 or 19 years of age, are already in legal age to drink alcohol; however, when they come to the United States, they become underage again and have to adapt to the American laws.

Although many of the international students can legally drink alcohol in their home countries, all their rights regarding to alcohol consumption change by coming to U.S. Any countries' laws are not adaptable for international students based on their ages or nationalities, so everyone who get in a country, has to follow the new rules, including the drinking age. There are only 6 countries together with the United States that have a drinking age at 21, so there are more countries with a lower drinking age (Hanson). This is to illustrate that there are many students from other countries who can drink there but not in American territory. By lowering the drinking age to 18, there would be a certain amount of international student who might have access to alcohol as they do in their home countries. As they can drink in their countries, people can infer that they know how to drink because they are used to do it. Taken this as an example, one can see that the age is not the most important thing to check when drinking, it is how well educated young adults are regarding to alcohol consumption. Additionally, if the drinking age get lowered, all these international students might legally buy alcohol together with Americans between 18 and 20 years of age. When all these young adults are allowed by the laws to buy alcohol by themselves, the economy, in known cities because of their colleges, will have a considerably growth, then this will help the whole country by contributing to the global economy. 

The United States has a huge variety of tourist places, and every teen wants to come to this country at least once in his or her life to enjoy all that U.S has to offer. However, coming to U.S while being underage has its disadvantages. To give a clear illustration of this case, one can take, as an example, a teenager between 18 and 20 years of age who is visiting the United States from a country where the drinking age is lower than the one in the U.S. The American laws apply for everybody, even if he or she is a tourist, which means that if, in this situation, the visitor is underage, and while staying in U.S territory will be treated as one. The underage visitor, as same as any other citizen, neither can drink from any alcoholic beverage nor buy any of this kind. Based on this specific and single example, one can realize that visitors, between 18 and 20 years of age, are drinking alcohol from the bottles they did not even buy. Who knows who is getting their drinks? But what if they could buy their drinks by themselves while visiting the U.S. if they, together with the American citizen between 18 and 20 years of age, could buy legally their drinks, the economy will increase because of the tourism and newly young adult consumers. The United States will keep being one of the most desired destination by young adults, but if the drinking age is lowered to 18, the legal economy will increase more, and the visitors, between those ages, will visit the U.S more frequently because now they might do what they could not before. 

As it is explained previously, underage consume more than the 10% of the all alcohol consumed in the United States (CDC). This could be also interpreted as if the law were being ignored for those individuals. Young adults think that they are the ignored because it looks like no one cares if they drink, only because they are still drinking. But actually nobody and nothing are being ignored. Teenagers are doing something they feel attracted to and encourage for. Teenagers are doing what they have been doing for years during high school and college time. Regarding to alcohol, they are being educating by themselves. They are learning from bad nights, bad habits, and unexpected consequences. Despite all these bad things happen, there will keep being alcohol consumption among high school and college students. 

To conclude with this argument regarding to the minimum legal drinking age in the United States, one needs to understand that although this issue is very broad, there are still ways to get benefits if the drinking age is changed. By lowering the drinking age back to 18, the process would have effect on four major aspects. First, the government could apply, in different ways and with diverse organizations, the way to teach students in high school about alcohol consumption, so by the time they graduate from high school and turn 18, they will have a better knowledge about it. Then when they move to college, they will be more educated and can easily identify the possible risks of drinking abusively. Second, the international students who are underage and are used to drink alcohol in their home countries, could now contribute to the economy legally by buying their own alcohol. Third but not last, economy thanks to the tourism, especially the tourist who are between 18 and 20 years of age, would increase because there will be more people who can buy alcohol, which is a product that is consumed by most of the young adults while visiting the U.S. Finally the aspect that involves the other three, which is the economy. The tourists, international students, and all the legally newly consumers would have an effect on the economy, letting this one increase in a significantly manner internally and globally.   

