When a young adult turns 18 they are automatically labeled as an adult and are given all the responsibilities of an adult. College administrations, DMVs, government facilities all treat 18-year-olds like adults, no special treatment because they are responsible for all their own actions. “Until you pass America’s arbitrary drinking age line (the highest in the world), cracking open a Zima while watching The Bachelor from the comfort of your Rhode Island governor’s mansion, with your trusty gun and legal ward in tow is totally off limits” (Fulton). This kind of treatment and respect that comes with being an adult goes away as soon as alcohol becomes involved with young adults under 21. These young adults revert to being treated as kids under the age of 18 when it comes to alcohol which makes the whole becoming a responsible adult at 18 back handed. Underage drinking is at an all time high and is a greater danger than it has been in the past. More and more teens are taken to the hospital and die because they’re unsupervised and binge drink to the point of blacking out. Most college kids do drink even when underage which can lead to unnecessary arrests which stains a college students record and could be damaging to their future career. Another reason it should be lowered is it is no longer necessary today compared to when it was needed in the 1970s. One of the main reasons it was raised was to reduce drunk driving accidents, and due to the crackdown on drunk driving and its strict consequences drunk driving is at its all-time low.  The drinking age should be lowered to constitute the process of becoming an adult, to teach these new adults how to drink responsibly, and to prevent dangerous unsupervised underage drinking.

The drinking age that is in effect today was established by a tax that Ronald Reagan signed off on back in the 1970s. “The legal drinking age in the United States has been 21 since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984” (Fulton). This tax withheld money for highways and roads from states who did not raise their drinking age to 21. Ronald Reagan was pushed to enforce this tax due to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the high accident fatalities due to drunk driving. MADD spearheaded this movement in Washington D.C. and lobbied for the drinking age to be lowered. They had a huge stand on this issue because of the numerous automobile accidents that were taking place at the time which provided them a solid case. These accidents were so high due to the issue of states having varying ages for drinking. Young adults would leave their home state that had the drinking age at 2 and drive to a state where drinking was legal for 18-year-olds and get plastered. They would need to get home and of course Uber and taxis were not a luxury back then so they had to risk driving back to their state. Also, the consequences for drunk driving were not severe or taken a serious as it is today so if caught the police would escort young kids back to their homes. This would just allow the teens to do the whole process over again. Most of the drunk driving accidents would happen at the borders of states which become known as blood borders due to the high fatalities. “The “interstate beer runs” as my parents would call them, led to what MADD and other similar organizations would call “blood borders.” These were stretches of highway known to bring liquored-up kids back to their own, less-alcohol-friendly states... with predictably disastrous results” (Fulton). Today proper education about safe driving is required for all kids before they can even get their drivers licenses. There are commercials against drunk driving, education for kids in high school, and parents are more aware and stress to their teens no drunk driving. Law enforcement cracks down on the few who drive drunk by setting up road blocks, check points, and undergo countless patrols that many police officers conduct every night. And when people do receive a DUI they are required to go to court and most of the time get their licenses revoked for over a year and usually also have some sort of community service to complete or an alcohol education class. “All 50 states currently define a driver’s having a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher as a crime; 42 states suspend drivers’ licenses on the first offense” (Cary). There are even vehicles that require a person to blow into a breathalyzer to turn the car on. Drunk driving can’t be eliminated but it is more enforced than it has ever been and is no longer a major concern when it comes to lowering the drinking age. 

“In America, eighteen-year-olds can vote, operate a motor vehicle, pay taxes, marry, become a legal guardian, own a gun, fight and die in a foreign country, and even become governor of the great state of Rhode Island” (Fulton). 18 year olds are expected to act like adults, accept their own responsibilities, and are given many freedoms. They are allowed to vote, to pay taxes, to go fight and die for their country, get their own insurance plan, do anything they want except have a nice drink of alcohol. So, while 18-year-olds are now treated as an adult, they are also coddled because they aren’t allowed to drink. This issue conflicts with the idea of actually being an adult at 18, which is an unhealthy way to try and induct these young adults into society. Even professors and college presidents are trying to get legislation passed to lower the drinking age because they believe being able to drink alcohol with fellow adults helps young adults mature into society and helps them fit in and belong in the same crowd as other respected adults.  Weary of battling drinking on campus during his tenure as president of Middlebury College, John McCardell Jr. penned a column in The New York Times assailing the 21-year-old drinking age as "bad social policy and terrible law” (Griggs). This ability to be allowed to drink with mentors and leaders is essential in passing on their roles in society to the next generation. Lowering the drinking age would allow colleges to teach students how to drink responsibly with professors and their teachers to better equip kids to be a part of society.

Underage drinking at colleges is a growing epidemic and endangers the lives of our future generation, leaders, and teachers. "A University of Indiana study of students at 56 colleges found that in the immediate aftermath of 21 becoming the national drinking age, significantly more underage students drank compared to those of legal age” (Griggs). While everyone in college drinks because well it’s college and that’s just what kids do when they’re in college, the danger there is over drinking. The reason college kids have to “pre-game” and drink so much is because they are not allowed to drink so before they have to go in public or out to bars they drink as much as they can so it can last them through a certain event like a football game or just to go to dinner downtown before hitting the bars. This puts kids endanger of alcohol poisoning and dehydration which is some cases can be fatal. And college kids have to hide their drinking activities so they’re unsupervised. So unsupervised, fast paced drinking is what ultimately causes the dangers of underage drinking at colleges. From the words of Mary Katherine Cary she wrote, “I’d rather see my kids sipping beer out of a red Solo cup at a well-patrolled fraternity party than drinking shots and popping a Vicodin in someone’s basement off campus. Lowering the drinking age will help slow the need for pregaming and bring the college fake ID business to a dead stop. It can’t help but reduce the binge drinking, drug overdoses and sexual assaults” (Cary). Half the kids have never even drunk alcohol before so they go crazy while others are more experienced and are better at knowing how to drink but if the drinking age was lowered colleges could allow places for kids to drink and be supervised and taught to drink responsibly.  

There are several arguments against the reason many people believe the age should be lowered. One is “nineteen- and twenty-year-olds are drinking anyway. If we legalize it, at least they’ll be drinking in a controlled setting.” A bar is not necessarily a “safe” or “controlled” environment to drink. A recent study showed that 76 percent of bars sold alcohol to obviously intoxicated individuals. Research shows that about half of drivers arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) or killed as drinking drivers in traffic crashes did their drinking at licensed establishments. So lets give young adults a safe place to drink by providing safe places to drink on college campuses which will monitor and could teach college kids how to drink responsibly. Most campuses have housing so driving wouldn’t even be a risk in this case. “Making it illegal to drink until 21 just increases the desire for the ‘forbidden fruit’. When young adults turn 21, they’ll drink even more.” Research shows that when the drinking age is 21, those younger than 21 drink less and continue to drink less through their early twenties. The lower rates of drinking before 21 are not compensated for by a higher rate of drinking after reaching 21. In fact, research shows that the opposite is true. And In 2004, a joint report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed studies that controlled for history of alcohol dependency, frequency of heavy drinking, years of drinking, age, gender, race or ethnicity, history of cigarette smoking, and illicit drug use. These studies reveal that those who start drinking at age 18 are at least twice as likely to be unintentionally injured, be in motor vehicle crashes, and be in physical fights while under the influence of alcohol than those who start drinking at age 21. 

 The drinking age should be lowered in order to allow young adults to be actual adults, to show how drinking responsibly is a better way to drink, which in turn will help prevent dangerous drinking such as unsupervised drinking, and will help young adults mature into society. Becoming an adult is important to every 18-year-old still trying to pave their own path and they should have no restrictions when it comes to becoming who they are. Safer drinking and legalized drinking for young adults will allow them to learn to drink responsibly and in a controlled manner. Lowering the drinking age is the right thing to do in today’s world. 
