Lowering the Legal Drinking Age to 18

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Lowering the Legal Drinking Age to 18 Sarah, an eighteen-year-old college freshman, walks into a convenience store and moves timidly to the back, hoping that no one she knows will see her. Opening the refrigerator door, she pulls out a chilled case of Coors Light. Sarah nervously approaches the cashier, with her fake ID ready to be shown, and places the case of beer on the counter. Upon first sight, the cashier assumes that Sarah is not of legal age to buy beer, because she is petite and looks young. When she places the case on the counter, the cashier asks her for her ID. Sarah, ready to show her seemingly flawless fake form of identification, hands it to him. At first glance, the ID seems to be real, and the date of birth appears correct, but, when looked at closely, the picture does not exactly resemble the underage customer. The cashier identifies this ID as false identification and refuses to sell Sarah the case of Coors Light. In the 1980's, Sarah would have been allowed to purchase this case of Coors Light, because then it was legal for eighteen-year-olds to buy and drink alcoholic beverages. In 1984, the United States Government pressured the states to raise the legal drinking age to twenty-one. The government used financial incentives to bribe the states, and "As of 1988, every state had raised its legal minimum drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one" (Buckley, 174). Today, this is a controversial topic among many eighteen-year-olds, because they have the same responsibilities and privileges as adults, yet people under the age of twenty-one are not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages. Legally, eighteen-year-olds have the responsibility to serve their country in war, to pay taxes, and to be prosecut... ... middle of paper ... ...cally. Therefore, did it really benefit the United States to change the legal drinking age to 21? In my opinion, it did not, because "It is not obvious that learning to drink with moderation, and not to drive when one is drinking, automatically happens to a twenty-one year old as distinguished from someone three years younger" (Buckley, 174). If eighteen-year-olds are given the privileges and responsibilities of adults, then the government must believe that they have the ability to make good decisions in important matters, of which should include drinking alcoholic beverages. Bibliography: Buckley, William F., Jr. "Minimum Drinking Age Laws are Ineffective." Alcohol: Opposing Viewpoints. Eds. Scott Barbour, Bruno Leone, and Brenda Stalcup. Greenhaven Press: San Diego, 1998. Gorman, Christine. Time. December 19, 1994. (Taken out of Viewpoints)

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