Drinking Age Argument

Photo By: kwazy

       In the article "Is Lowering the Drinking Age a Good Idea?" They are disscussing wether the drinking age should stay at twenty-one or lowered to eighteen. Some believe it should be lowered to eighteen, as long as the eighteen year old has a permit and their parents permission to drink. On the other side, others believe it should stay at twenty-one because "When you see younger people starting to drink, if they combine that with driving it results in a lot of fatalities" (Is Lowering the Drinking Age a Good Idea?, Ogilivie). In my opinion the drinking age should not be lowered to eighteen,because it would cause a lot more deaths and problems as the statistics say.
 
    My first reason for why I think driving should be kept at age twenty-one is because many problems may occur if this law was to be passed. For example, "research shows that if a youth starts drinking alcohol before age fourteen, their chances of becoming addicted or having an alcohol-related crash or getting into a fight increases" (Is Lowering the Drinking Age a Good Idea?, Ogilivie). I know the argument is about wether or not to lower the during age to eighteen or not, and you are probably asking yourself, why does the quote say "fourteen"? It is because if we lower the drinking age to eighteen it may lead teens or even children to drinking since they might they are close enough to being eighteen.
 
     My second reason for why I think driving should be kept at age twenty-one is because it may also lead to D.U.I. crash related incidents. Another example is "Raising the drinking age to twenty-one saves about 800 lives a year"(Is Lowering the Drinking Age a Good Idea?, Ogilivie). That quote now proves how many lives are being saved each year, because they drinking age is twenty-one. Now just think how many eighteen year olds get drunk and than drive, and get into incidents where people's lives are taken, because of careless,underage drunk drivers.
 
     In the counter argument where people think the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen it says "The person (eighteen year old) could drink with permission of the parent or in the parent's home, or only in restaurants or bars." (Is Lowering the Drinking Age a Good Idea?, Ogilivie). Now in my opinion that is a very bad idea. Just think about it there are so many careless parents in the world that wouldn't really care if their children are drinking or getting drunk, some parents may even be getting drunk with their child and driving. Now that would be a very ba situation to be put in, just think about all the life's that could be taken.