Drinking age, keep it where it is

A young adult goes through their last "right of passage" turning 21 years old. At this age in America, one can legally drink, go out to bars, and consume and purchase alcohol. Before this age, Americans are not permitted to do so. And frankly, it should stay that way.

Discussions of lowering the drinking age are constantly happening, but honestly, what are the real benefits? Well, there seem to be none that would better our society. The fact that foreign countries such as France and England, with the drinking age set at 18, does not push me to support lowering the drinking age.

At 18 years old, a young person is still developing mentally and physically. Putting a substance like alcohol in the hands of this demographic would be detrimental to their bodies from a biological standpoint. Having the drinking age set to where it is now also lowers drunk driving accidents. Allowing a larger group (the whole group of people between the ages of 18 and 21) to get their hands on alcohol inevitably means more people getting behind the wheel drunk. While I am aware that underage drinking does occur, I think that having the age set at 21 deters some young people from drinking until they turn the legal age. Lowering the age now seems to be setting us back as a society. When my parents were college students, the legal age to drink 18. Shortly after, the drinking age was increased to 21, obviously for good reason. Setting the age back at 18 is not a progressive action, moving forward. It's moving backwards if anything.

Look carefully at the arguments discussed above. It is important to think about if we, as young people, would eventually want our children to be able to drink at the age of 18. I certainly would not. I am young myself, not of the legal age yet, and I do not support lowering the drinking age. Let's keep things just the way they are.