Drinking age discriminates against young adults, should change
Every society is faced with the dilemma of determining when youth become adults.
American society, which is relatively new, is undecided about when youth become adults, and when we should start to trust them with decisions.
At the age of 15 in most states, individuals are allowed to drive a car alone — statistically the most dangerous thing most people do every day.
At the age of 18 we’re trusted with our own future and the future of others when we’re given the right to vote and full legal status. I venture to say that most people believe 18-year-olds are adults. And yet, someone who’s 18 isn’t allowed to drink alcohol in any state.
The reality of maturity levels is that every person matures at different rates. The ages we choose to bestow rights and freedoms are, for the most part, arbitrary and must be that way. The U.S. is a rule-of-law system which means the rules must be standardized to be fair to all citizens.
I simply wish to point out the fallacy in the current drinking age. The drinking age is 21 because of the National Drinking Age Act of 1984. The federal government passed this law, which mandated states change the drinking age to 21 or lose 10 percent of their funding for highways.
The theory behind this law is it would cut down on drunk driving accidents. Though there is evidence that there have been less drunk driving since the drinking age was raised, it’s still an infringement on the freedoms of who most people consider adults.
This is a systematic oppression of young people. The idea that we’re going to let people vote for the leader of the country, but not buy alcohol, is illegitimate. If we’re going to say people above the age of 18 are adults, we should treat them as such.
Even the terminology around the drinking age suggests that people under the age of 21 are somehow less important than those above it.
For example, the word used to refer to individuals under 21 is “minors.” That word literally implies that people under 21 are somehow subordinate to their older counterparts. The federal drinking age is a blatant discrimination against young adults.
We as young adults must go about solving the problem methodically. The first step is applying for help from our Congressman. We must explain to them why the federal drinking age isn’t fair. If enough of us do this, it might persuade Congress to repeal the National Drinking Age Act of 1984, allowing states to change the drinking age to 18.
Not only must we ask for this trust, we must become worthy of it. We won’t drink and drive. We won’t date rape. We won’t abuse alcohol and must understand the dangers of using it.
We must choose to use it responsibly. This is the only way to regain our freedom to buy alcohol.
