Since the federal government enacted a blanket legal drinking age of 21 in 1984, people have been rebuking it. Faced with losing federal highway funding, every state in the union was passively forced to adopt a variation of the minimum legal drinking age. I think people will agree that turning 18 does not magically make you more responsible, mature or less prone to bad decisions than you were at 17 years and 364 days. The same applies when you go from 20 years and 364 days to 21 – but at 21, you have three more years of life experience and brain development behind you. The ability to responsibly use alcohol cannot be determined on an individual basis. It is determined by the actions of the American youth as a whole.
North Carolina has some of the most stringent laws in the country regarding underage possession and consumption of alcohol, with zero tolerance for both. Despite recent attempts by lawmakers to lower the drinking age back to 18, many health officials have firmly opposed it. In 2004, the Department for Crime Control and Public Safety compiled data indicating that 95 percent of all violent crime committed on college campuses is alcohol related and 4,000 DWI arrests were attributed to youths ages 16-20.
Although many argue that if men can volunteer for military service at 18 to die for their country, they should at least be allowed to consume alcohol. This argument is ill-founded, however, considering that new research shows the brain only finishes developing around age 21. Naturally immature logic and decision-making skills compounded with alcohol-impaired individuals and automatic weapons will never be an intelligent mix.
Another argument is the idea that countries in Europe have a lower or non-existent drinking age when compared to the United States, and that they are no worse off for it. In actuality, the reason Europeans safely consume alcohol at younger ages is because they have been conditioned to do so. Alcohol has never been considered taboo there, whereas in the formerly Puritan U.S. it is still an object of obvious contention.
In North Carolina alone there are still four dry counties, and on Sundays sales are prohibited from 2 a.m. until noon. This is an unheard of concept in many foreign countries. Considering it is now easier to buy a shotgun in North Carolina than a keg of Bud Light, this treats alcohol like an illegal drug rather than a casual indulgence. In this way, the culture surrounding drinking cannot be compared to Europe, and therefore neither can the age required to drink.
Health problems resulting from nights of binge drinking and increases in alcohol-related traffic fatalities among inexperienced drivers should lead the federal and state governments to heavily contemplate the consequences of reducing the drinking age. It is the culture that must change before the number.
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