I'm 20 years old. Here in the UK I can arrange to meet my friends at a bar and go for a few drinks. I generally won't get anything more than slightly tipsy, being in a public environment around a lot of other people discourages me from doing so. Why would I want to embarrass myself in front of so many people? In fact, I would say that the most drunk I have ever been was at a house party that one of my friends had, because everyone there knew me already and I was not as aware of how much I was drinking due to the fact that we didn't have accurate measures.

Were I currently living in the US I would still be considered underage for drinking. Say I was at college, and my over-21 friends went out to a bar, where would I be? Probably at a house party. If anything, having the higher drinking age would encourage me to drink more, because I feel like I am mature enough to drink alcohol, and I would feel victimized that the government disagreed. I wouldn't want to be going out and getting hammered at the clubs every night, I would simply like to have a couple of glasses of wine with a meal when at a restaurant, or be able to go out to a bar that my older friends are meeting at.

The over-21 law seems completely at odds with other laws in the US that could be lumped into the category of things that teenagers look forward to being able to legally do. In some states, the legal age for a driving license is 14. All bar two states allow you to legally marry at 18, this is also the age at which sexual intercourse becomes legal in most states. Even though you can't legally drink until you're 21, it won't stop teenagers, especially in college, from doing so. I would wager that it possibly even adds more danger, because most college bars are close to campus and therefore easy to walk to, whereas house parties could be anywhere, and could encourage more young people to drive drunk.

It really needs to be looked at subjectively. Is it really likely that the legal ages for driving, marrying and having sex are going to be raised to 21? I highly doubt it, and there would probably be outrage if you tried. I believe that America should follow the example of many other countries and lower the drinking age to 18, it might not be as bad as the expect.

Learn more about this author, Roisi Proven.
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