Lowering the drinking age

Essay by coolboyoneUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, October 2002

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Lowering the Drinking Age: A Problem or a Solution? Why is it that 18 year old citizens, like myself, can legally obtain a driver's license, register to vote, be forced into jury duty or a draft, can be tried as an adult and even be put to death, but cannot buy and consume alcoholic beverages legally? It is hard for me to comprehend as a young American that we can be permitted or subjected to perform actions that affect the lives of other people, but we are not allowed to have the freedom of choice on an issue that directly involves one's own life. By setting the standard drinking age at 21, a taboo was placed on alcohol for young people. Perhaps by settling the standard drinking age to 18 young adults would no longer see alcohol as the forbidden fruit it has become, but rather as an enjoyable substance that is meant to consumed maturely.

Local officials in Littleton, Colorado, feel that lowering their state's legal drinking age would be a huge mistake. Colorado's Department of the Treasury announced in October of 1997, that Representative Ron Tupa of Boulder was to introduce a bill to legislation for the lowering of the state's drinking age to 18. Many of the local officials there felt that it was a "bad idea which would cost lives" (Miret). According to the article, the Colorado's State Treasurer's office claims that there has been many studies that show how the raising of the drinking age to 21 has "resulted in fewer teen- Cocco 2 age alcohol-related accidents" (Miret). However, other evidence suggests a different story. They are more alcohol-related accidents with people over the age of 21. A study of all 50 states and the District of Columbia found "a positive relationship between the purchase...