Lower Legal Drinking Age

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Since the states increased their drinking age to 21 in 1987, every citizen of this country between the ages of 18 and 20 have been oppressed by the very people elected to power to protect their rights. It is evident that the legal drinking age among Americans should be lowered to the legal age of adulthood, 18 years. At this age, any American can marry without their Parent’s approval and can move out of their guardian’s house and live on their own. Why are these adults deprived of their right to consume alcohol? A police officer unexpectedly arrived at a party where many young adults were drinking alcoholic beverages. He asked to see two young gentlemen’s identification to prove that they were of legal age to be consuming. Both were respectable citizens. Neither had caused a disturbance or been involved in any trouble. They both were voters, they were peaceful and respectful, they were both registered for the selective services, as every 18-year-old man is required to do, and both paid their taxes. However, since one of the men was only 20 years of age, he was issued a citation that cost him over one hundred and seventy five dollars and he lost his privileges to drive a car for an entire year. The other, who was 21, was of course allowed to continue on without further interferences. The issue presented in this scenario is a very serious problem today and threatens the very liberties that make this country so exemplary. There may not be one credible or plausible reason why this age group is lawfully bound from having a beer after graduation or a glass of champagne on their wedding day, yet everyday more and more Americans are arrested or cited for practicing what should be a legal prerogative. Many young adults face these extreme injustices on an account of this unwarranted restriction that so unjustly harasses them.
There is a simple and agreeable solution to this matter. The government should revise the law back to what it was years ago. Most states in the 1970’s had a legal drinking age of 18, 19, or 20, the majority of those being 18 years of age. According to Daniel N. Allen, M.A., David G. Sprenkel, M.A., and Patrick A. Vitale, Ph. D., changing the age limit for one to consume alcohol in the eighties was a failure in its mission to control drinking and lower deaths from alcohol related automobile accidents. Statistics hav...

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... and to preserve our meticulous way of life. When the government is not protecting the rights of its citizens, reform is most definitely required and so it is needed here. The United States is the only country with a minimum drinking age above 20. It is the highest and most absurd of any state in the world. Our free country just does not seem so free if its people cannot partake in something as simple as a glass of wine with their dinner. It is time for the American community to regain and to keep hold of their much-deserved rights.

Works Cited
Allen, D. N., Sprenkel, D. G., and Vitale, P. A. “Reactance Theory and Alcohol Consumption Laws: Further Confirmation Among Collegiate Alcohol Consumers.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol 55 (1994): 34-40.
Hanson, David J., Ph. D. “The Legal Drinking Age: Science or Ideology.” Alcohol: Problems and Solutions. 8 Nov. 2001. <http://www.student.potsdam.edu/alcohol-info/ InMyOpinion/ScienceIdeology.html>.
---, “The United States of America.” International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture. Ed. Dwight B. Heath. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. 300-315.

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