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Eduardo Delgado

Dr. Sara Dustin

ENC 1102

15 January 2019

Should the U.S. lower the drinking age to 18?

1. The topic I selected focuses on explaining if the U.S. government should lower the

drinking age to eighteen years old. In the United States, a person who has reached the

age of 18 is allowed to operate a vehicle, vote, marry, own a gun and even serve in

the military. Some of these things bear more responsibility than drinking alcoholic

beverages. However, the legal drinking age in the country stands at 21, a number that

is the highest in the world. President Reagan introduced the age limit in 1984.

2. In Europe, the minimum drinking age is lower than 21, and no one can stand and say

that Europeans are irresponsible since they start drinking at the age of 18. I have

friends that at 18 they travelled to France as a group for a couple of months. The way

they drank is not the same way European teenagers drink. My friends being American

drank irresponsibly because they knew once they got back home they would not drink

again until 21. The European teenagers drank less quantity in a more social manner.

3. Before the law was passed, the legal drinking age varied from one state to the other,

with some separating the age of drinking beer and hard liquor. I know a family that

when they were teenagers lived in Pennsylvania and would drive to Ohio where the

drinking age was 18. According to the stories they told me, kids living near the border

used to cross over and drink the whole night. If the drinking age is minimized, young

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people will not have to go through such hustle to have a good time. Underage

drinking will also reduce drastically. They would also drink less since it is readily

available legally.

4. This is an important topic because underage drinking is an epidemic in the US. The

CDC reports that 11% of alcohol consumed in the US is from illegal underage

drinking. World Health Organization in 2015 did a report that showed in the United

States, 31% of road traffic deaths involve alcohol. This percentage is higher than

many countries with a drinking age lower than 21 such as France (29%), Great

Britain (16%), Germany (9%), China (4%), and Israel (3%).