The current legal drinking age in the United States is 21. This means that anyone under the age of 21 is not permitted to drink and can’t buy or be served alcohol. This is something that is policed through the use of identification. If you do not have an I.D that shows you are of the legal limit, you can’t drink. However, there is much debate surrounding the legal age to drink. There are many that feel the legal age should be lowered and that changing the drinking age to 18 is something that should happen. Before you choose a side on this topic, it is important for you to be me informed. This is possible if you are aware of both the pros and cons of changing the drinking age to 18. Here are the pros and cons of changing the drinking age.
Pros of Changing the Drinking Age to 18
Make Drinking Safe
Many of the unsafe activities involving the use of alcohol occur when individuals are between the ages of 18 and 20. This is when they are legal adults and have access to all adult rights except the ability to drink. Making the drinking age lowered to 18 should cut back on some of the unsafe activity that occurs because drinking will be legal the risky behaviors and bad decisions could be minimized.
Lower Accident Rate
It should also be noted that countries that already have a lower drinking age in place actually have less drinking accidents. This means that having the drinking age at 21 is not necessarily cutting back on the amount of accidents that occur or even keeping people from driving until the age of 21. If the age of drinking is lowered to 18, it is possible that a drop in drinking and driving accidents could occur.
Cons of Changing the Drinking Age to 18
Access
The one thing that you need to realize when it comes to changing the age of drinking to 18 is that the biggest con is access. If the drinking age is 18, this will result in those 18 years of age and younger having more access to alcohol. There will be high school students that will legally be able to buy and consume alcohol, which will only result in drinking occurring at an even younger age than it does now. The access to alcohol becomes much easier if the drinking age is lowered and that is not a good thing.
