I am pretty sure that all of you reading my blog are at least 18 years old. This means that you have most likely left the home of your parents to go to college or into the workforce. Therefore, you have been faced with many new things that have required you to make a decision on your own. If choosing to drink alcohol or not drink alcohol has not already been one of these decisions, I can assure you that you will be faced with the choice by the end of this semester. Since you are 18, you are independent, which means you have the choice whether or not to break the law. If we are old enough to decide whether or not we want to break the law, shouldn’t we have the right to drink alcohol at the age of 18?
Right now, the legal age to drink is 21. This seems controversial given the fact that 18 is the age at which we become independent. I feel that the law of our country is a bit out of touch with reality when it comes to the drinking age because they have to know that underage drinking goes on. We are solely responsible for the way in which we choose to live our lives at the age of 18. We are responsible enough to handle every action in our lives, so we should easily be able to handle the effects of alcohol. The government is making a fool of themselves by keeping the drinking age at 21. Lawmakers can choose to not lower the age to 18 but in the long run, they are the ones that are going to have to deal with the negative effects of alcohol on our country, including teenage deaths.
You say that we are responsible enough to hand every action in our live, so we should easily be able to handle the effects of alcohol.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if that's the case. How many times have you heard of teenage children (18+) come back to their parents because they could not handle something? Needed money? Needed a place to stay because their significant other kicked them out? Eighteen year olds and older may be "responsible", "competent" and "adept" but when it comes to certain situations, they come crawling back to mommy and daddy. I'm not saying that everyone is like this though...just that it is not uncommon to this this happen.
Also, if we could "handle the effects of alcohol," then we should be able to drink responsibly. There are those who drink and do stupid things afterwards that have the potential of ruining their lives...
I do understand what you are getting at Nature vs. Nurture. However, when it comes to alcohol, I feelt that this is one subject that teenage children would not go crawling back to their parents. This is because they would be scared to do so. As a teenager, I know that I would not want to share my drinking experiences with my parents because obviously, it is illegal. I know that i would be in trouble with them. I am sure that most teenagers have this same fear, so they are not able to discuss the topic of alcohol with their parents.
ReplyDeleteSo what if a teenager had a dependence on alcohol? They are most likely not going to go to their parents for help because they know the negative consequences that could come. Instead, the teenager will keep their problem to themself and go unhelped. What I am getting at is that if the drinking age were lowered to 18, teenagers could openly discuss the effects of alcohol with their parents. The parents could then teach the children how to drink responsibly.