
As a major part of social interaction, alcohol consumption has become a major staple in American culture. However, with the right to purchase and consume strictly set at the age of twenty-one within the United States, many young adults attempt to get around the restriction with negative outcomes. Due to increased consequences if a minor is caught under the influence or in possession, binge drinking and underground activities have taken a rise in college aged students, creating an unenforceable law and environments that lead to incredibly dangerous situations. Ultimately, in order to reflect the growing responsibilities young adults are given, reduce the production of fake identification, bring dangerous binge drinking activities to a halt and partying into a supervised environment, the drinking age should be lowered in the United States to eighteen with mandatory alcohol education courses, and a license to drink program. Furthermore, when in a controlled environment, alcohol is an enjoyable social activity that cannot be stopped, only hidden in college, and when examined in other countries around the world poses no severe problems if used responsibly.

In American society, alcohol has always played a large role in social interaction, even during the periods in which it was banned on United States soil. Considered America's 'National Curse' during the 1920's, the 18th Amendment was invoked banning the sale, manufacture and distribution of liquor starting a thirteen-year period known as Prohibition. It was believed that the ban would " ... lower crime rates, strengthen families, and generally improve the national character ... " however, it resulted in the loss of almost one thousand lives per year due to underground consumption of tainted liquors ("Prohibition"). Instead of a reduction of alcohol consumption in this period, usage of alcohol went through the roof, increasing to between sixty or seventy percent higher than before the prohibition age (Miron, Zwiebel 2).  Ultimately, the ban did not stop people from drinking, it just created a more secretive and thus dangerous environment, reflecting the current situation with teenage drinkers in America. 

In 1933 however, prohibition ended, and with that for the next fifty years, various states set different drinking ages ranging from eighteen to twenty-one. It was not until the 1980's that Congress would then pass the National Minimum Drinking Age Act with help from the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which threatened to take away necessary highway funding for states unless they adopted a current minimum drinking age of twenty-one (Gonchar). Ultimately by 1987 this led to a country wide ban on alcohol usage for adults under the age of twenty-one and has remained unchanged since, even though this law is questionable in its enforcement and has led to increased negative effects that could be avoided if the minimum age were reduced to eighteen. 

Most college freshmen start school around the age of eighteen or nineteen and are given almost the same freedom and responsibility of their elders. However when it comes to alcohol consumption, that freedom and sense of trust in sensible decision-making is completely stripped from ones hands, even though in the eyes of the law the eighteenth birthday marks a stage of adulthood. Ultimately, if a young adult is allowed to knowingly take out thousands of dollars worth of loans, and move across the United States for college why is it that their decisions regarding safe alcohol consumption is even questioned. Furthermore, at the age of eighteen, ones decision making is developed to the point where enlisting in the military, and voting for the leaders of our country is legal, encouraged and not questioned, however the simple act of drinking a beer could result in fines, a mark on ones record or even jail time that could cause damage to future career opportunities. Camille Paglia wrote in a recent Time magazine article, "It is absurd and unjust that young Americans can vote, marry, enter contracts and serve in the military at 18 but cannot buy an alcoholic drink in a bar or restaurant." Why is it that suddenly the judgment of a young adult is questioned when alcohol is concerned, however their judgment is held to the same standards as other adults if a serious crime were to be committed. Ultimately, a lowered drinking age would make sense in the United States to reflect the other responsibilities and weight we give our young adults when it comes to decision making.

A heightened drinking age does pose a serious threat to college students as well as most of society. Much like during the prohibition era of the 1920's, laws do little to stop the use of alcohol, only push the usage further underground and glamorize the thrill of breaking the law. It is with this underground usage that incredibly dangerous situations arise, oftentimes with no adult supervision or help to go to if things go terribly wrong.  In 2008 this idea was agreed upon by over one-hundred college presidents who are actively trying to lower the drinking age.  "'Twenty-one is not working," they wrote. "A culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking' -- often conducted off-campus -- has developed.'" (qtd. in Curtis). Ultimately, instead of reducing underage drinking, the crackdown on consumption has further pushed activity by minors underground, and off campus, creating more opportunities for things to go wrong and people to get hurt. From this trend, binge drinking in college students has become increasingly popular leading to serious situations with no one to turn to out of fear. The negative effects of this underground drinking is seen all across the country, from the death Charles Terreni Jr. a student at the University of South Carolina who passed away at a house party in March of 2015, to more publicly, Gordie Bailey a pledge at the University of Colorado Boulder who was left to die in his fraternity house due to his peers being to afraid to call for help. In the case of Gordie Bailey, he consumed fifteen to twenty shots of alcohol and when he became incapacitated and unable to walk was left on a library couch by his peers who were terrified of repercussions (CBS NEWS). For nine hours, Gordie Bailey suffered from alcohol poising until he passed away, and had his friends sought help earlier it is believed by medical officials he would be alive today (CBS NEWS). 

Furthermore, if the minimum age of alcohol consumption were lowered to fit college aged students, less underground drinking would take place and binge drinking would be less prominent on college campuses. This would allow parties to be held in a more controlled manner with adult supervision rather than tucked away behind blackout curtains in a dorm room or fraternity house. This means that students like Gordie Bailey and Charles Terreni Jr. would no longer be left to die on couches and bathroom floors surrounded by terrified peers, but rather sent to the hospital for expert medical help because current minors would no longer be concerned for their own wellbeing in the eyes of the law. While Medical Amnesty or the '911 Good Samaritan Law' helps to combat the problem of minors not calling in overly intoxicated people due to fear by giving both parties amnesty (the intoxicated and the caller), it is only available in thirty-one states and does nothing to prevent minors from getting to the severe point of intoxication, but only attempts to fix the damage once it has been done (Medical Amnesty Initiative). Futhermore, if it became legal for young adults between the ages of eighteen to twenty-one to drink, adults and law enforcement would have more control to supervise alcohol usage and put a halt on dangerous activity by leading through example and openly being able to check in on activity. 

Continuing the trend of reducing dangerous activity, as a country if we were to lower the drinking age, we would be looking at less fake identification ownership. Ultimately, having various forms of identification floating around is not only a serious security issue, but also a safety issue. In a 1996 study of 272 college students by K F Durkin, T W Wolfe, and D W Phillips III, it was noted that 46% of students reported ownership or use of fake identification for the intention of consuming alcohol. This rate 46% has more than likely increased with better technology and time as with the rise of the binge drinking generation. Ultimately, "ownership of fake IDs by underage college students is a significant public health problem in that fake ID ownership is highly prevalent in college and meaningfully predicts heavy drinking" (Martinez, Rutledge, and Sher). If the drinking age were lowered, it would mean a drop in the production of fake identification as the market to buy and the need to own or borrow fake identification would no longer be present and would in turn help bring down the glamorization and thrill of taking a risk and breaking the law. 

We would also see a major drop in the trend of binge drinking that is popular among college students if we began to lower the age of consumption. Part of the reason binge drinking is so prevalent is the idea that a maximum amount of alcohol must be consumed before leaving to go to events or areas where underage consumption will be shut down in order to stay drunk and the idea that parties may be shut down therefore alcohol must be consumed in mass quantities before it is restricted. Dwight B. Heath, an author and professor who has written hundreds of works on cultural attitudes towards alcohol states that, "Alcohol has no mystique. It's no big deal. By contrast, where it's banned until age 21, there's something of the 'forbidden fruit' syndrome." (qtd. in Griggs). This forbidden fruit syndrome is one of the root causes of current minors abusing alcohol. Essentially, illegal consumption is glamorized as it is highly illegal, and the idea that the illegal consumption may be discovered makes it necessary in the eyes of minors to consume as much as possible as quickly as possible. With anything, if you tell a large group of people that they are not allowed to do something, that activity is then sought after, and almost encouraged in reverse. This ties back in to the days of prohibition when alcohol consumption was raised, even thought it was cut off from production and discouraged by the government. Essentially, there is no problem with alcohol usage in moderation, it is the act of overconsumption and increased intoxication as a result that creates harmful situations. If the act of binge drinking were cut out of the drinking equation or even significantly lowered, we would be looking at less alcohol related incidents as a country, clearer decision making while under the influence and even out with other developed countries that have adopted lowered drinking ages. 

The United States also remains one of the only developed countries in the world that still has a drinking age set at minimum of twenty-one. As a staple of culture and growth in many countries around the world, alcohol plays a major role in the lives of many. Ultimately in one hundred and fifty-seven countries around the world, alcohol usage is widely accepted and legal for young adults ages eighteen and under, and in parts of Europe especially, drinking is an important part of growing up (Pro Con). However, the United States does not fall into this category and if anything, harshly discourages the opposite. Twelve other countries stand with the United States with ban alcohol usage until the age of twenty-one however. These twelve are represented by countries such as Oman, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Kiribati to name a few, none of which even made it close to the top fifty countries represented on The Human Development Index, at which the United States currently sits in the top five. Camille Paglia wrote in a recent Time article "Learning how to drink responsibly is a basic lesson in growing up  --  as it is in wine-drinking France or in Germany, with its family-oriented beer gardens and festivals." and it is these lessons that we are depriving our children of valuable life lessons and instead instilling them with the idea that alcohol usage is a crime, forcing them to hide and disguise their activities leading to terrible situations. If forms of alcohol were legalized earlier in a young adults life, such as beer or wine it would allow room for teachable experiences and growth regarding alcohol while growing up, versus a complete letting loose that hits many at the age of twenty-one. This would also allow the 'forbidden fruit' factor mentioned earlier to sizzle out of American culture, desensitizing its consumption and therefore minimizing binge drinking.  

However, ever since the raising of the minimum age to twenty-one, the opposition to lowering the drinking age has been unrelenting. Offering statistics from highway safety, to studies of human development, led by the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving, there has been no real progress on the side of changing the age to eighteen. The argument centers around the main ideas that " ... since the 21 law was widely enacted, the number of young people killed annually in crashes involving drunk drivers under 21 has been cut in half, from more than 5,000 individuals in the early 1980s to around 2,000 in 2005 ... " and that " ... the neurotoxic effect of excessive alcohol use is a danger to ... key regions of the maturing adolescent brain ... " statistics that hold a valid weight but fail to recognize outside factors such as changed safety regulations in automobiles and the influence of binge drinking (Dean-Mooney). Also, the ideas that college aged young adults lack the decision making to make good decisions under the influence and will in turn make costly mistakes due to the different reactions teens have to alcohol than adults. Ultimately, it is believed that if the drinking age were reduced that poor decisions under the influence would result in more deaths due to drunk driving and alcohol abuse as it is believed that at the age of eighteen young adults lack the same cognitive skills as their elders. Also, it is theorized that sexual assault rates and crime rates would rise. Furthermore, as a majority of the United States population is in support of a higher drinking age, it is assumed that this law will not be changed in the near future. 

But there is a reasonable solution that goes in hand with lowering the drinking age that could potentially keep both parties happy. Ultimately, the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen as a reflection of current responsibilities, to lower the ever-growing trend of binge drinking and to expose dangerous activities to adult supervision with mandatory alcohol education courses and a license to drink program. This potential program would teach young adults the proper way to consume alcohol, and instill valuable information before turning them loose in the real world, much like one takes a drivers education course before being given the keys to an automobile. It is unfair, unjust and incredibly dangerous that college students are withheld the right to drink, as the refusal of alcohol rights only has pushed the activity underground in a dangerous manner. As a call to policy makers, parents and active members of society the drinking age law needs to be lowered in order to save student lives in college and reduce the risk of dangerous binge drinking. As a college student at a major university I have seen the worst results of the drinking age, from friends not wanting to call in overly intoxicated peers to the hospital, to heavy binge drinking and usage of fake identification. As students are given all of the responsibilities and held to the same standards as their elders, they should be able to partake in alcohol consumption in a safe, supervised public manner as their older peers and friends of the same age in other countries. Between lives lost as a result of trying to hide illegal behavior, to fake identification rings running rampant on college campuses, the solution to bringing the age minimum down solves multiple problems all at once. However, at the end of it, alcohol usage, when consumed responsibly in moderation, can aid in social interaction, provide an outlet for creativity, or just plain fun. 

