Lower the American Drinking Age?

Most, if not all of us, know that the legal drinking age here in England is 18. The birthday almost every kid looks forward to, especially when you can hit the bar for your birthday. Well, the good old U-S of A might also drop their drinking age to 18 because they are attempting to decrease binge drinking. John McCradell, the former president of Middlebury College, says that binge drinking usually occurs when underage drinkers sneak around and go overboard with their drinking.

McCradell states that dropping the drinking age brings their alcohol consumption out of hiding where their parents can monitor it and teach their children responsibility; and he also suggests that once a child hits the age of 18, they would be able to take a class similar to driver's Ed but about alcohol education instead and earn a license to buy and use alcohol. Just like if you get too many tickets for your car, if you are got drinking irresponsibly you get your license taken away. Also, if you have gotten in trouble for underage drinking in the past, then you cannot receive a license until you indeed turn 21.

Many people believe that lowering the drinking age will give college students the opportunity to learn how to drink responsibly through role models at college functions. Statistics show that 32% of underage drinkers are heavy drinkers compared to the 24% of legal drinkers. Even though there has been a decrease in per capita consumption and motor vehicle crashes, during the same time period there has been an increase in other issues related to heavy and irresponsible drinking among college-aged students. Most of these reported behaviors showed little change until after the 21-year-old law in 1987.