There has been a lot of talk about lowering the drinking age over the past few years with teens starting to find easy ways to drink at an earlier age than twenty-one.  With all the technology nowadays fake IDs are easier than ever to get.  Many people do however believe the drinking age should be lowered and by doing so it will help with underground drinking with teens drinking without any supervision, people being more responsible when they go out for their twenty-first birthday along with understanding the dangers that can happen when drinking too much, and teaching people to at an early age how to drink responsibly so that way they will know how to control their alcohol along with respecting it instead of abusing it.  You also have the people who do not want the drinking age lowered as they believe that it would create more problems than solutions.

With Regan passing a law stating that states who lower their drinking age they will not receive any type of federal funding for road construction.  While Regan’s mother played a big part in Regan passing the law because she did not believe in underage drinking and thought that there should be a federal law stating the drinking age. While before Regan was in office states were able to set their own drinking age which caused a lot of conflicts with teens who lived on the board of states.  For example, In the 1970’s kids were still crossing state lines into states who served alcohol to kids under twenty-one and smuggling it back to their state.  This led to the creation of MADD.  They were responsible for catching the kids who were crossing state lines to get the alcohol.  Underage drinking has always been a problem, teens and underage drinkers have always found a way to get alcohol.  The “underground drinking” as some people refer it is teens who are underage and are getting alcohol through someone else or using a fake ID and are drinking without any supervision to make sure nothing bad happens.  A lot of the time this happens in college with fraternity parties or other parties where no adult is there to monitor everyone.  The Underground drinking has been going on since the dawn of alcohol.   Many of the adults will tell you that they had or did drink before they reached the legal drinking age.  

While there is a huge cultural difference in The United States and parts of Europe that allow their children to drink at an early age but also teach them to drink responsibly.  On the other hand, in the United States we tell our children that it is wrong to drink and they are never educated on responsible drinking.  Fulton explains “And even despite the age-based prohibition, young drinkers still overdo it. The number of reported cases of alcohol poisoning rose from 779 to 2,290 between 1998 and 2005 for 18-24-year-olds in the US. Which makes me wonder, if European kids get intoxicated more often, but are more responsible with their intoxication, isn’t that... better?”  Another point that was made talks about the difference in Italy and the United states.  Rogerson stats by comparing the alcohol death rate to the United States which is per 100,000 people 1.6.  That being said makes America forty ninth in the world.  Compared to Italy’s death rate which is per 100,000 people 0.2.  Heath who is a writer for CNN explains that the drinking age should be lowered to eight or even six.  While he is not encouraging children to get drunk but allowing them to have small amounts of wine when they are at dinner with their parents.  Heath comes out by saying “parents educate their kids about alcohol and rob drinking of its taboo allure, which can make rebellious teenagers sneak off to basements and backwoods to binge drink far from adult supervision.”  In Italy younger people are exposed to drinking at a younger versus the United Sates.  So with that data it shows that it is not entirely a bad thing to lower the drinking age.  It has to do with more of a cultural thing and how society looks at it.  

In the United states your twenty-first birthday is a huge deal.  Your finally of age to drink legally which for a lot of people gives them the excuse to get completely wasted, order their first legal drink, and for many other get rid of the fake ID.  One student from Italy came out and talked about what it was like coming to America for college and how different it was compared to being in Italy.  Rogerson talks about how she was able to drink in Italy and not have to worry about getting in trouble for having a few drinks with friends, but when she came the United States if she were to have just a small amount of alcohol in her system she would be in big trouble.    she noticed in America turning twenty-one was a huge deal and meant for a long night of drinking a fun.  As where when she was in Italy she was drinking beer and wine in the tenth grade legally.  Rogerson also talks about how if her friends lived in Italy they would not act and drink carelessly as they do in America.  She was taught at an early age to respect alcohol and the culture accepted drinking in a moderate level.  Rogerson was also able to drink with her parents during meals at an earlier age, which allowed her parents to teach her about alcohol.  As whereas in the United States parents just tell their children that drinking is bad and never truly teach their children how to drink responsibly.  So when they become of age to drink all they want they are able to respect the alcohol but all have a good time out, without acting carelessly and causing problems.  Also with the United States being a sister country to Great Britain both countries have different laws and policies for drinking.  For instance, in Britain the drinking age on average is around 16.  As where in the United States the drinking age is twenty-one.  But, Great Britain does not seem to have a big problem with teens drinking.  It is not uncommon to see a fifteen-year-old boy having a drink with their parents out in public when they are at dinner.  If that were to happen in the United States, the parents would be looked down upon if it were to happen.  One of the key factors with that is the cultural difference and the fact that people in Europe and Britain teach their children at an early age about drinking.

For some reason the United States has the highest drinking age and fail to inform children and teens about alcohol.  The United States just turns their head when it comes to talking about that sort of thing with people who are under the drinking age.  A lot of the people who are for lowering the drinking age in the United States believe that it should be lowered but do it in stages. Gabrielle a reporter from New York Times Company talked about She also talks about the drinking law that was passed in 1980 that set the drinking age to twenty-one and how it was supposed to reduce underage drinking related automobile accidents.  While it did not reduce the underage drinking, it took the drinking underground to fraternity house and unsupervised parties.  So it seems that instead of solving the drinking problem by raising the drinking age all that it did was send underage drinking into private or underground places.  If the United States would teach their children early on about alcohol there would be less problems with Driving Under the Influence, alcohol poisoning, and fatalities related to drinking.  While most children and teens never get the proper teaching they go off the model of their parents and watching them drink over the years.  Sometimes, they get the sense that get drunk all the time is okay and it is a way of life.  Which in turn is not how drinking should be intended.  Teaching teens about alcohol should be just as important as teaching them about sex ed.  We do not give a teenager a condom and say have fun.  Parents and schools teach them about safe sex and how to prevent certain things.  Why should alcohol be any different.  The only time in America where you have to learn about alcohol is if you get in trouble for minor in passion, minor in consumption, driving under the influence, etc.  How can we expect teens to understand what alcohol can do to the body and the side effects of it if we do not teach them about it?  Some Universities have a course that new students must pass that talks about drinking, being a responsible drinker, and being aware of how much someone has had to drink.  That is a good start but why start so late with something like that?  Why wait until that person is already out of high school and has more than likely already experienced drinking?  We do not teach children about sex education after they have already done it a few times or before.  On the other hand, some high schools are starting to have alcohol awareness classes to inform the students about alcohol.  While it is a decent start every teen should be informed early on about drinking responsibly like how of sister country has been doing for years.  Also there are several people who believe that since your eighteen and you can you can serve your country, vote, get married, get a credit, and move out of the house to start your own life you should be allowed to drink.

There are also the people who are against lowering the drinking age as they believe by lowering the drinking age that will only cause more problems that solutions.  As one person stated that by lowering the drinking age there will be more death related to drinking along with more teens being in accidents that have to do with drinking.  Watson an author from The New York Times stats Tara also talks about the crime rate being up with people between twenty-one and twenty-three, which is believed to be caused by drinking.  She feels that if the drinking age was lowered that the criminal activity would not only rise but also last longer since the drinking age would be lowered.  “She also talks about some of the other problems lowering the drinking age can cause such as unplanned pregnancy, teens dropping out of high school, and problems within a house hold.  While those are major problems themselves adding alcohol in with that could create the perfect storm to ruin a young person’s life and destroy their successful future.  Also according to Watson we would just be creating bigger problems to deal with.

While people will always argue over the drinking age as we cannot please every person.  By lowering the drinking age, we can help with limiting the underground drinking without any supervision, help people be more responsible when it comes to their twenty first birthday, and teach responsible drinking earlier in life.  Not necessarily the same way that Europe does but in a way that we do not just turn our back on the subject but inform the younger people the dangers that come with drinking.
