
As most people are aware, laws are much different in Europe, specifically the drinking age which ranges from sixteen to eighteen depending on exactly where you are.  The debate over the drinking age first became important to me when I traveled to Europe last year as a graduation trip.  It really stuck out to me one afternoon when I was touring the streets of Ireland on the last day of school for high schools and came across a group of them casually walking down the street with a beer in their hand to celebrate.  I was astonished by how casual it was to them and it was not a forbidden fruit like it is for us in America.  Being a college student that is under the drinking age I have seen firsthand the effects of binge drinking and drinking in secret places away from authorities.  I decided to do further research into the effects of lowering the drinking age in the United States because it is something I feel experienced with.

In 1984, the National Minimum Drinking age act took place. This act told states that they needed to make the national drinking age twenty-one or they would lose ten percent of their federal highway funding. Due to how much money the states would be losing, they all complied quickly and raised their drinking age. 

This article is written by a nineteen-year-old, Nick Tucker, who lives completely on his own, balancing college expense's, bills, meals and all adult related activities.  The main claim here is that while being treated as an adult in everyway possible he is not able to make the decision to go out and buy a beer.  According to Tucker "People in my age group behave like children when it comes to drinking because the law treats us this way."  Without a fake ID a college student in this age group is forced to "pregame" which means to drink as much as possible before going out to the bars, enough to last the entire night.  It is not hard to see how potentially dangerous this activity is.  Tucker is a credible source for this topic due to the experience he has pertaining to under aged drinking and using a fake ID.  There may be some amount of bias due to the fact that he in the age group that can not drink legally and he will obviously push to change this.

Obviously this is a very controversial subject and not everyone agrees with Tucker, especially German Lopez, who shares a very contradicting side.  The biggest reason being, the drinking age helps to save lives, which is the reason it was initially raised.  Although many people clearly disobey the drinking law, extensive research shows that it has depressed drinking and saved lives. According to the article "National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which raised the legal drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one: It found that the number of fatally injured drivers with a positive blood alcohol concentration decreased by fifty-seven percent among ages sixteen to twenty, compared with a thirty-nine percent decrease for those twenty one to twenty four and nine percent for those twenty five and older.". The critics of the drinking age claim that because of the drinking age binge drinking is more common in those under twenty-one and therefore it is more dangerous, according to the 2014 research this is not true. Since the drinking age is twenty-one, those under that age have a lot harder time getting their hands on alcohol.  The drinking age also breaks up social groups in a way that makes it harder for younger people to get their hands on alcohol. If the drinking age was still eighteen, it would make it a lot easier for high school freshman and sophomore to get their hands on alcohol. But due to the drinking age being twenty-one, it makes it a lot harder for people that young to get their hands on alcohol, it is mainly the people closer to the drinking age.

In conclusion, the Minimum Drinking Age act has differential opinions according to age. Younger people obviously want to have a lowered drinking age of eighteen. People under the drinking age argue that if they are old enough to serve and vote, why should they not be allowed to drink? People that meet the age requirement have different opinions on this issue. According to research the drinking age being twenty one has lowered alcohol related deaths and crimes. 

