jill of all tirades

Currently the legal drinking age in the US is 21.  There is a debate going on about lowering the drinking age to 18 (doesn’t this debate come up every few years?).  I am going to have to agree with the lowering of the drinking age.  Each state actually has the ability to set their own drinking age, but the consequence of placing it lower than 21 is to loose 10% of their highway and road funding from the federal government.  This sounds similar to why the schools teach abstinence only, and we all know how well that program worked.

I think that most kids are drinking around 18 anyways, and it seems ridiculous to be able to vote or join the army and not have a beer.  SADD says that in 2005, 28% of kids 12-20 years old were already drinking.  I am assuming that the majority of these numbers are from the 16-20 age range.  So, if the law is being flaunted anyways, what good does it do?  Right now it is keeping kids from learning their limits and realizing that drinking is not some cool, forbidden thing.

I think we should take a page from Europe’s book in this.  In most places, the drinking age is 16 and the driving age is 18.  I agree with this way of doing things.  It gives kids a chance to drink for 2 whole years without driving, hopefully the novelty would wear off by then.  I also think that kids drinking while they still live at home and go to high school would give parents and teachers a chance to teach responsibility with alcohol.  Granted, this would require parents to actually participate in the education of their children and the development of their values (a responsibility that seems to be lacking in many parents).  No system is perfect, but I think that drinking before driving would be a better choice than what we have now.