why the US should lower the drinking age...

...and why it never will.


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Alright, so, I'm proving a couple of things with this post:


1.) Dude, I could rule BEDA. Hell yeah.
2.) There is at least one thing about American culture that are, from an objective standpoint, really friggin' stupid.


Anyway.


[This note added after continuing: Into the controversial territory. Administration, don't hail down on me now, I'm not censoring now because I fear the man coming down on me, damn it. Okay, so maybe the cursing was overboard. You know what I mean.]

image by Tambako the Jaguar

So, for those of you who aren't in the States and/or don't know, the drinking age here is 21. 


Which is bullshit because seriously, nearly everyone I know has sampled alcohol before they were legal. It just isn't viewed as that big of a deal for us teenaged folks. 


Pity, because The Man thinks it is. You can lose your license for years, have it on your record for years, all because of one drink. It's crazy what can happen to people. 


The "not a big deal" thing isn't the only thing that has people breaking the law, of course--there are two other big things involved with that. 


1.) Alcohol is easy to come by. It's really, really easy to get a six pack of beer for a party anywhere in America. You'd think if the police were trying to keep kids from getting hammered, they'd at least do a really good job of it--but not so. They steal it from their parents, get other people to buy it, I don't know how the hell else you get alcohol so easily, but evidentially you can. Even kids at the magnet school, the nerd school, were found with alcohol at a Youth&Government trip, and I've heard unconfirmed rumours there may or may not have been alcohol on a Model United Nations trip, too. Eighteen years old, maximum. Three years under the legal limit. 

image by lacates

2.) The media is swarming with booze. You think it's all kids' shows and teenagers' shows? Maybe it's just the evil sitcoms and cop dramas? It's in everything. Books. Magazines. It's a part of teenage culture that can't be removed, and I say that while it may cause some people to view it as not a big deal, that's really the way it should be. (Stay with me on that, I will continue to explain.) 


Everywhere on TV, in magazines, in books, in movies there is alcohol. Hell, I pass at least three billboards advertising for various types of booze on the way to school coming from south up to north--I'll count on Friday and report again then! Even if The Man tried to censor it out by banning books, banning television shows, banning movies or having them all scrubbed clean, it would never work. You can't stamp out all of it.


And if you do, someone--by which I mean everyone--will notice. Enter problem three--

image by gfpeck

3.) If you tell a teenager not to do something and it's not going to cause immediate discomfort without reward, they will do it. 

The more The Man tries to block it, the more The Man tries to say it'll ruin your life, the more half of the teenagers will want to try this mysterious alcohol thing. The other half will still get drunk anyway, because hell, everybody thinks of it as not a big deal. 

It doesn't matter how many articles, how many videos, how many Healthy Choices classes we have to sit through. Always, always, always alcohol will be consumed regardless, because until you're an alcoholic, there aren't horrible, life-threatening consequences unless you're stupid enough to drive while drunk.

And how many alcoholics do you know? Compared to how many adults who occasionally have a beer, a margarita, or a glass of wine?

Yeah, that's sort of what I thought. And if you're getting anything closer than ridiculously disproportionate to the right, you don't know how many adults occasionally have a beer, margarita or glass of wine.

image by jkönig

So now here's my argument for Why and How The US Should Lower the Drinking Age, abridged:

The United States ought to lower the drinking age for a variety of reasons, with the uppermost of these being that it would decrease the number of drunks. 

By the age of twenty-one, nearly all Americans will be out of the house. Many will be in college, away from guiding parents and school administrators for the first time in their life. 

Is this really when the government believes it is best to introduce young people to something like alcohol? Consider that at twenty-one, the brain is still not fully developed. Sure, they're a little older than teenagers. But they're also high off their own freedom, still not--from an objective, scientific, research-proven standpoint--fully developed adults. No-one is there to tell them not to drink too much, so maybe they will. 

And then they'll be alone, without families as they drink for the first time and maybe get drunk. Likely they won't be at their own home and will have to arrange transport back. Without any idea what they're getting into, because there's a high risk there will be no-one there they can trust to tell them from experience what's going to happen.

Compare this to a teenager drinking for the first time, legally, with his or her parents at home. It's not forbidden. It's not against the law. Not only does this make it less appealing to the teen, but if they're more likely to drink earlier on, so be it! If there are parents around because the teen doesn't have to hide what they're doing, then there is somebody to drive them home. Somebody to give them Advil and a glass of water that Sunday morning and say, "Now then, are you ever going to get hammered again?"

Chances are, if they have no "forbidden fruit"-type incentive to drink, the answer will be no.

The United States stands nearly alone in the Western world with its over-20 drinking age. At the same time, it's the US that is more plagued with troubles because of teen drinking.

Don't let alcohol be a taboo. Teens don't view it as a big deal, and they never will. It's been too inflated by the government, too encouraged by the media. Face the facts. Over half of all teenagers will drink alcohol. So accept it, before more end up destroying their families and their lives because the government wouldn't see reason.

image by ChrisGoldNY

And here's why the States never will: 

1. Lower the drinking age? Say it's okay for teens to drink? Isn't that sort of going against at least a hundred years' worth of effort?
2. Prevailing opinion: Teens aren't smart enough. You tell them they can drink, they will get drunk.
3. Our culture and history are steeped with drunk teenagers already. See above and below.
4. This isn't Europe. In Europe, it's frowned upon--severely--to get drunk. In the US, it's sometimes a rite-of-passage, sometimes viewed as a good thing, like you're strong to have made it through the hangover... not stupid to have gotten it. (see thing 2 from the top)
5. The isn't Europe--we Americans are notoriously bad about holding our drink.

Just wait. This winter, I'm going to London.

And I fully intend to break out a bottle of wine and learn how to drink responsibly... someplace where I am legal.

--IBI