The Minimum Legal Drinking Age In America

Could drinking at an early age be safer for children? By introducing children to alcohol early on in their life gives them the ammunition they need to handle alcohol responsibly. In other countries parents will let their children drink some alcohol at family diners to get rid of that taboo around it. My parents did not introduce me to alcohol very well. When I was younger, they would try to hide what they were doing from me. Obviously, they did not let me drink some alcohol with them. They do not allow me to have any they taught me about alcohol by teaching me how dangerous it can be. My Father is extremely attainment about the dangers of alcohol because he works at the medical examiner’s office. Time after time he has warned me of the dangers of drinking, and it has worked I will never drive under the influence. Although the government believes that the minimum legal drinking age should be 21 in America, If the drinking age were lowered there is a high possibility that the number of intoxicated driving accidents would go down.

Why should the minimum legal drinking age be lowered in America? 18 is the age of adulthood if teenagers can bear the responsibility to vote, or to risk their life in the military, then they should be able to make their own decision about alcohol consumption. Once someone has become the age of 18, they immediately have the responsibility to be put on a jury, or to sign a contract on their own. 18-year-olds can even get married in America. If the government were to lower the minimum legal drinking age to 18 it would solve quite a few problems surrounding alcohol. If the minimum legal drinking age was 18 teens can drink in safe environments instead of sneaking out and possibly getting in huge trouble. If alcohol was available to teenagers to be consumed in a safe controlled environment such as their home or someplace, they do not have to leave from where they can be supervised, then there should be no reason to keep the minimum legal drinking age so high, so that teenagers are tempted to sneak out to get a drink. If the minimum legal drinking age were lowered from 21 to 18 then it would eliminate the thrill of breaking the law to drink. There are many other countries that have a minimum legal drinking age of 18, and in countries such as France parents will let their children drink a glass of wine at family diners to get rid of that taboo and sort of forbidden fruit mentality about alcohol.

In other countries such as Canada, Mexico, and The United Kingdom, the minimum legal drinking age is 18. According to “Minimum Legal Drinking Age in Other Countries,” 116 countries have a minimum legal drinking age of 18. ('Minimum Legal Drinking Age in Other Countries”) Many other countries have a minimum legal drinking age of 18 and because of that they have less intoxicated driving accidents. According to this excel spreadsheet about the estimated number of drink-drive casualties in the United Kingdom in 2016, the number of people who were killed or seriously injured in an intoxicated driving accident was 1,480, and the total number of accidents involving intoxicated drivers was 9,040.