I talked a lot about the major differences between Europe and the U.S. throughout the semester. Although the cultures are similar, things like patriotism, public transportation and police brutality are aspects every foreigner has a hard time getting used to, but in the end it is the drinking age that might actually be the most frustrating.
It seems like the only reason for the high drinking age here in America is to hand out MIPs to college students. Fiji, Indonesia, Micronesia, Palau, Sri Lanka and the United States are the only countries in the world where you have to wait 21 years to drink alcohol. Lowering it to 18 would put America on a list with more modern and powerful countries such as France, Great Britain and China.
The mentality surrounding alcohol consumption differs a lot from culture to culture. That is why I do not even want to look at eastern European countries who abuse alcohol way too frequently like Belarus, Lithuania, Russia and Romania, and also rank among the top five
heaviest-drinking countries in the world, according to USA Today. So let’s ignore those vodka-loving cultures and look at countries that actually are successful, while having a low drinking age instead.
Germany is one of the biggest alcohol-loving countries in Europe. In fact, the drinking age for beer and wine is 14 as long as the child has permission and is in the presence of their legal guardian. But don’t worry, you have to be 16 to buy and drink beer and wine by yourself, like it is in other European countries such as Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland and Austria.
I guess it is normal to assume that all 16-year-old Germans get hammered every weekend simply because they can, but in reality, the low drinking age results in something completely different. It has changed the view on beverages with a low alcohol content to more than a way to intoxication. Beer is almost looked at the same way as a non-alcoholic beverage and costs less than a soda some places.
You are also allowed to drink it in public whenever you want. Society only asks to put the empty beer bottles on the side of the sidewalk, so the homeless can pick them up to recycle them. Because in Europe the government motivates you to recycle by giving you some of your money back, if you put recyclable bottles in a machine you find in every grocery store. So in the end public drinking even benefits the homeless.
People also are more exposed to alcohol. Teenagers do not grow up looking forward to be as cool as college students and count down the years until they are old enough to drink. If you force a person to wait as long as 21 years to being able to get intoxicated, the whole concept of drinking is becoming way more exciting than it really is. And when you then somehow get alcohol although you are five years below the drinking age, you are the coolest guy around because you are doing something illegal.
By the time you can legally buy beer in Germany, you have most likely already tried it. When you then have your first bad experience with alcohol, throwing up and blacking out, you most likely are not older than 16. You get to know your limits and how alcohol affects you at a very young age.
The driving age is 18. By the time you have your license, you are done with getting blackout drunk and drinking more than you know you can handle. That is a teenager-thing.
In America on the other hand, some people are not really exposed to alcohol until their freshman year of college. They are unfamiliar with their limits and have a driver’s license. The result is more drunk driving among underaged students.
If we lower the drinking age, I expect the result to be the same as it was in Colorado once marijuana was legalized. Everybody would abuse the new law at first and bars, clubs and restaurants would make more money. But sooner or later I would expect it to be like Europe. The mentality of low percentage alcoholic beverages would change, people would be calmer with drinking and society wouldn’t make young teenagers hyped about getting old enough to drink.
So when college freshmen go out, fewer people would get carried out of bars crying and throwing up at the same time.
Markus Hüfner is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Kristiansand, Norway. You can follow him on Twitter @MHufner_TDR.