Negative Effects of Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age in America

When looking at the drinking age in many nations, a trend of relatively young minimum legal drinking ages (MLDA) can be seen around the world. As it stands, all of America’s 50 states employ a MLDA of 21 making America one of only seven countries in the world to have a drinking age set at 21; the oldest age set as the minimum legal drinking age in the world. Where many of our friends in Europe are happily drinking away at 18, many here in America are left wondering why we don’t employ the same age requirement. Why is it that America has set the age so high as opposed to everyone else? How much more dangerous could drinking at 18 be as opposed to 21? The reason that the MLDA in America is so high is not because America is ignorant or controlling in nature but because setting the MLDA at 21 saves lives and encourages more responsible behavior. Lowering the MLDA in America back to 18 would only harm and endanger the health and well-being of the people of this nation and as that is the case, the MLDA should stay at 21.
Among the arguments that proponents for lowering the MLDA put forth is the argument that lowering the drinking age would allow for youth to drink in more safe and controlled environments such as bars and nightclubs. They claim that with the MLDA being set at 21, many youth are drinking in unsupervised and dangerous environments such as house parties or a friend’s basement so they can minimize their chances of being caught and punished for breaking the law. However, lowering the MLDA would irresponsibly allow for youths to drink in bars and nightclubs which are NOT safe environments for drinking. According to studies done on alcohol sales from licensed establishments, 76% of bars have sold alcohol to obviously intoxicat...

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...that person is to use illegal drugs (Kandel). By lowering the MLDA, we would be allowing kids to begin drinking at younger ages and therefore we would likely be increasing the number of teens that use drugs.
As a society it should be our duty to be maintain a safe and healthy environment for everyone in the general public. When it comes down to it, our society is nothing more than a product of how we decide to govern ourselves in order to encourage success and well-being among those who inhabit our community. Since raising the minimum legal drinking age to 21, our nation has been able to do just this by reducing the number of alcohol related deaths, rates of alcohol consumption, as well as promoting a healthy and safe environment for everyone in it. By keeping the drinking age at 21 we are promoting the type of community that we should always try to keep; a safe