By Stephanie Foo

Student Life Editor

The old saying, “you always want what you can’t have” clearly defines the drinking culture adopted by the United States particularly for teenagers. Despite various laws and restrictions, underage teenagers continue to drink irresponsibly, blatantly disregarding their health and morality. In order to promote safe and responsible drinking among teenagers and discourage an irrational, underground drinking culture, it is in the nation’s best interests to lower the legal minimum drinking age to 18.

In the US, the legal minimum age a person can purchase and consume alcoholic beverages has remained at 21 since the passing of the National Minimum Drinking Act in 1984.

However, at age 18, one can own a gun, vote, pay taxes, marry, join the military, and even purchase tobacco. Once teenagers turn 18, the government places a heavy amount of responsibility onto them, requiring a greater level of maturity than before.

If teenagers are deemed mature and responsible enough to own a gun or pay taxes at the age of 18, there is no reason that they are not responsible enough to regulate their consumption of alcohol.

In fact, limiting the access of alcohol to those over 21 prompts, not obedience, but disobedience of the law itself. According to the Interim President of Wooster College S. Georgia Nugent, PhD, “By outlawing moderate use of alcohol in appropriate social contexts and with adult oversight, we have driven more drinking underground.”

In comparison to the Prohibition Era during the 1920s and early 1930s, those forbidden to consume alcohol were fascinated by it that dozens of speakeasies were created to get around the law. Although this rule serves to limit drinking, it actually burned a greater flame and prompted even more drinking.

The same holds for high school and college students. From pre-Prom rituals to fraternity parties, the tradition of drinking and obtaining alcohol is further exacerbated by the fact that they cannot have it. A study by the University of Indiana of 56 colleges discovered that following the passing of the National Minimum Drinking Act, underage students drink more alcohol than those allowed to do so.

More specifically, a June 2006 study conducted by then an assistant professor at the Duke University Medical Center, Aaron White, found that about forty percent of college freshmen admitted they engaged in binge drinking: five or more drinks on one occasion.

To mend a premature drinking culture, the legal minimum drinking age should be lowered to 18, a more reasonable time to not only integrate drinking into daily life, but also teach young adults about the boundaries of consuming alcohol. Rather than pretending that underage drinking is not a problem and ignoring its disastrous effects, the government should create a safe and accepting culture in which alcohol education and regulation is enforced. In terms of the health implications of drinking at an adolescent age, alcohol awareness and education should be implemented into health classes.

Our youth must be taught to drink responsibly by allowing them access to alcohol in the first place. In order to effectively regulate the consumption of alcohol in youths and promote a more rational culture, the legal minimum drinking age should be lowered to 18, an age that already encompasses the transition to adulthood.