Everyone always talks about how many lives are saved because the minimum drinking age was pushed from 18 to 21, but think about how many more lives would be saved if people taught kids to drink responsibly going into college. In 1984, Ronald Regan established the drinking age law, which prevented people under the age of 21 from legally drinking alcohol. This law was based on several factors that included studies on how alcohol could hurt a developing brain. Researchers believed that kids under the age of 21 would abuse alcohol and make decisions that could affect them later in life. However, even with this law in place underage kids did not stop consuming alcohol at an alarming rate. Some psychologists even believe this law makes underage drinking like eating the forbidden fruit, which appeals to lots of kids. This perception of alcohol is why people need to stop ignoring underage drinking and teach them how to do responsibly. At 18, kids are about to go off to college and leave home for the first time and it’s important that you can feel confident that your son or daughter knows how to drink responsibly because mostly likely they will drink before they turn 21. 

 While we could lower the drinking age to 20-19, 18 is the perfect age for people to start drinking. When you turn 18, it’s the first time you are considered an adult in the eyes of the law. This also means you can fight for our country, get married, and vote for the president of the United States. It doesn’t make sense that 18 year olds are not considered mature enough to enjoy a beer but they can vote for our commander and chief. However, people keep reverting back to scientific research that teenager’s brains are not developed enough to consume alcohol. While, there might be some fact to this argument, it is only when teenagers binge drink alcohol and binge drinking is bad for everyone not just teenagers. Brain development also isn’t fully complete till around the age of 25, but does that mean we should push the drinking age back to 25? My parents grew up in the 70’s, when the drinking age was 18 and some states had separate laws for beer and hard liquor. This meant you could legally buy a fifth in one state and then drive into another state and it would be illegal for you to consume that fifth. According to my parents this happened a good amount. This type of behavior was called “interstate beer runs”, which led to creating of Mother Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and would be known as the “blood borders”. This led to the higher drinking age laws and is said to have saved 900 lives per year. However, it could have also been the same drinking age law across state lines that saved people from getting behind the wheel. It’s even safer nowadays with the invention of Uber, an easy and safe way for teenagers to get home. It makes more sense than ever to change the drinking age to 18. 

Even teachers and parents are surprised with the lack of education about alcohol. High school teachers and students barely talk about it except for possibly a week in health class. Educators don’t want to border on telling these teenagers that drinking alcohol is ok, so they try to suppress it and not even mention it. This not only doesn’t help the kids but ends up hurting them in the future. If the drinking age was 18, high school teachers could feel comfortable teaching kids how to drink responsibly. They teach kids about safe sex but seem to skip over the part where they talk about responsible drinking habits. This could easily be made part of the curriculum necessary to graduate high school. This would insure that all kids are at least provided the opportunity to learn about drinking safely. If the drinking age was 18, some students would be able to drink legally in high school. However, this might not seem as bad as some parents might think. Parents would be able to watch over their kids while they drink, instead of catching them secretly drinking. Teenagers would have the opportunity to learn from a role model how to drink responsibly. It might also prevent kids from driving home drunk because instead they will have been drinking with their friends, supervised, and with other ways to get home. This is the type of environment necessary to ensure safe drinking and eliminate serious alcohol-related accidents.

More importantly these teenagers would be ready for college when they don’t have parents to watch over them all the time. Colleges would have a class for all freshman (similar to USC’s University 101) that is specifically meant to teach responsible drinking. This could limit the binge drinking that happens with college freshmen when they get to college. According to the National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism, around “1,825 students die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries” (Alcohol Facts and Statistics). More than 150,000 college students ages 18 to 24 have also developed an alcohol-related health problem later in life. These numbers could easily but cut in half with some education but the government finds it easier to keep ignoring the problem and inefficiently enforcing the law. It would easier for campus security and RA’s to supervise their students rather than wondering if they are legal or not. Even the police would be able to protect kids and not have to arrest them for underage drinking. Around 100 college presidents have called on lawmakers to drop the drinking age to 18 because it would help keep all their students safe. Shuttles could be put into place for college towns so kids would have a safe and cheap transportation home. Instead of paying tickets for MIP’s, that money could go to helping students stay safe. While, this system might take some time to perfect, it has the potential to save a lot more lives than our system right now. 

The United States can look to other countries for examples on how to implement this system. Europe has had a minimum drinking age of 18 and the level of respect and control 18 year olds have as compared to The United States is so different. They grew up with alcohol and their approach to drinking is more responsible. At an early age they are taught to drink casually and in moderation, not trying to get drunk. They don’t think of drinking alcohol as a big deal because it was normal for children to have a glass of wine with dinner. While it’s said that 18 year olds have a lower tolerance compared to a 21-year-olds, in most cases you don’t really know how much you can drink till you try it. Tolerance is more about responsibility than age, some 18 year olds are more responsible drinkers than 50 year olds. “Recent research published by the World Health Organization found that in many European countries where the drinking age is 18 or younger, 15 and 16 year-old teens have more drinking occasions per month, but fewer occasions of dangerous intoxication than their American counterparts.” (Brendzia) While the US doesn’t need kids to start drinking at 15, parents and educators can teach teenagers the importance of managing their alcohol. The goal for teenagers should not be to get drunk and blackout. However, most families in the US are very strict when it comes to underage drinking, and teenagers love to do things there are not supposed to do. It’s engraved into teenager’s brains with movies and TV shows showing how cool it is to binge drink. Teenagers start to believe binge drinking is a game or sport. “More than 90% of this alcohol is consumed in the form of binge drinking” (Fact Sheets). By the time we reach the legal age to drink, we can’t control ourselves or moderate our drinking because we were never taught how to. If our system was a little more like Europe’s, teenagers would be better equipped to manage alcohol. 

While it’s been over 30 years since the drinking age was 18, three states are trying to turn back time. “New Hampshire, Minnesota and California are considering legislation that would allow people 18 and older to consume beer and wine but not liquor” (Tucker). However, the government is threatening government funding, similar to 1984, when the federal government held the Highway Trust Fund hostage until all states complied with the new minimum drinking age law. These states would lose eight percent of federal highway funding, but could be saving many lives. Since, the law was put in place in 1984, “twenty percent show all signs of alcohol use disorder” and “two-thirds of people between 18 and 21 years of age admit to binge drinking within the last month” (Fact Sheets). Even alcohol-related deaths have tripled since the law. While lowering the drinking age does create another set of problems. People can deal with these problems with family, education, and supervision. 

Many high school and college students even use a fake ID to buy alcohol and get into bars. This not only puts them at risk of getting a Minor in Possession charge but also a fake ID charge.  Most of these charges are dropped or expunged for around 750 dollars and a couple alcohol education classes. “In a study of about 1,000 college students at a U.S. university, the researchers found that almost two-thirds of the study participants had used false IDs to buy alcohol at least once during college” (Fake ID). This shows that the minimum drinking age law is not stopping college students from drinking, so teaching them to drink responsibly is in the best interest of the universities. If the minimum drinking age was dropped to 18 schools could implement alcohol education classes to be taken before enrolling to decrease alcohol charges against students. Supervision and safe drinking environments could also be incorporated. This would eliminate MIP and fake ID charges for college students and force police to worry more about supervision of students rather than tickets. 

While not everyone agrees on how to reduce the alcohol-related accidents, most people agree something needs to change. Many law officials and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) believe that the drinking age should stay at 21 and the enforcement of underage drinking should be increased greatly. MADD was founded in 1980 by Candy Lightner who had a daughter tragically killed by a drink driver. Their goal is to drastically drop traffic fatalities that are alcohol-related. This organization has helped spread awareness of drunk driving and has caused accidents to decrease. They believe lowering the drinking age would eliminate all of the work they started. There reasons include that it would be medically irresponsible, a higher percentage of people would be binge drinking, and alcohol-related accidents would increase. Some studies have shown that alcohol consumption by teenagers can affect the development of brains frontal lobes, which are used for emotional regulation and planning. Long term problems such as a higher chance of addiction, memory loss, and depression have also been seen with teenagers that drink at an early age. MADD is also afraid that if the drinking age is lowered, then more teenagers would be able to binge drink without anyone stopping them. If there is such a high rate of binge drinking right now with laws in place to prevent it, no laws would be mayhem. This could also lead to more teenagers drinking and driving, which is exactly what they want to prevent. They still believe things need to change but just not the drinking age. They are striving for more efficient enforcement of the minimum drinking age. They also want to shut down fake ID manufacturers that help kids get alcohol underage. While their ideas aren’t bad, I believe there are better solutions to the problem than more enforcement of the drinking age. 

As stated earlier in my paper, I believe the key to lowering alcohol-related accidents is better education merged with a minimum drinking age of 18. It’s necessary for high schools to teach kids the importance of handling their alcohol. Without this education they could make one mistake that could haunt them the rest of their lives. Parents wouldn’t just give their kids a car when they turn 16 and say you can drive now. They teach them how to drive responsibly, stopping at stop signs, knowing how parallel park, and merge on the highway. Drinking should be similar to learning how to drive. Parents shouldn’t just give them alcohol when they turn 21 since they are considered responsible now. They need to teach them how to consume alcohol at a rate that is healthy for the body. They also need to teach them when to stop drinking. Teenagers never know there limits when they first start drinking, which can lead to dangerous consequences that are usually repeated. Its more irresponsible for parents to not teach kids how to drink responsibly because most teenagers will drink before they turn 21 even with it being illegal. It’s also irresponsible for colleges to not do a better job teaching students about alcohol when they get to college. They understand that students will drink so why not at least teach them about what they are about to drink. Parents, high schools, and colleges need to take action on preventing another generation of kids growing up not knowing how to drink alcohol. Binge drinking statistics haven been increasing exponentially over the past 5 years. It’s time that people did something to actually stop the problem rather than try to just cover it up by raising the drinking age. While this system will not come without complications, it’s a risk that the US needs to take in order to save more lives. 
