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Tyler Bokum
Mrs.Fero
English 12
19 October 2015
Drinking Age of 18
On the 17th of July, in the year 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed the National
Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required all states to up the drinking age to 21 or receive a
ten percent decrease to their federal highway funding. All states agreed and took up the higher
drinking age. After this passes, debates against drinking age have persisted. Some people believe
making alcohol illegal gives it a forbidden fruit effect when you drink and actually increases
the rates of underage drinking. Others argue that if you can fight for our country, you should be
able to sit down at a bar and have a drink. The drinking age should be 18 in the United States
instead of 21.
One of the reasons that the drinking age of 21 should be changed to 18 is that legally, you
are an adult at the age of 18. Bu.edu.org shows that Amethyst Initiative proposes by lowering
the drinking age, colleges will be better able to generate awareness of the risk of excessive
alcohol use. If we could educate these 18-20 year olds more, they could be more responsible
with their alcohol consumption. You are not educate about this when you turn 21. There could be
more information available to the 18-20 year olds and make remarkable progress with safer
alcohol consumption. I can fight & die for this country so why cant I crack a beer is one of the
many points made by military members between ages 18-20. You may represent your country but

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you cannot drink alcohol. This is one of the many reasons that the drinking age should be
lowered to 18.
Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov states Results showed that fake ID ownership increased over time,
12.5 percent precollege to 32.2 percent fourth semester. This drinking age of 18 is constantly
being broken with illegal false identification. No matter what, these people under 21 can easily
get a fake ID. These people are rarely getting caught. Also, the previous source also states that
42 percent of college students in a nationally representative sample reported having had five or
more drinks in a sitting within 2 weeks. Lowering the drinking age to 18 will lower arrests and
fines for these violations of drinking underage. It will happen anyways, so if its legal, it will
lower public spending on stopping people who violate it.
Some people believe that lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 would be medically
irresponsible. This is true with how the mindset of the general public currently is. But, it is
currently worse with the drinking age of 21. If the drinking age is lowered, there could be public
classes and lessons on drinking safely and responsibly. There is currently no classes or education
prior to turning 21. So, if the drinking age is lowered, the health of the people who can legally
drink would improve because the people who drink would be well educated.
In conclusion, lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age would benefit the
general public. People who drink would be better educated, and doing this legally. There could
be less public spending on stopping people with false identification and less medical incidents
involving alcohol. This is why the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 years of age.