Civics Rant Ontario’s legal drinking age is currently at 19-years-old. That puts the province’s legal drinkers one year older than it’s the provinces to the east and west (Quebec and Manitoba), but two years younger than the states to the south. Being in the middle age causes many debates and arguments between raising and lowering the legal age.
Many people argue that 19 is way to young to let irresponsible teens under a deathly substance but many people argue that 19 is way to old and that they should change it to 18 or 17 like other provinces. The argument I read that I am reflecting on is ‘Should the legal drinking age be change?’

Underage drinking is a very popular issue that has developed that causes unprotected sex, injury, alcohol poisoning, and impaired driving. The debate states that 18-year-old men are eligible to go fight in war and kill people so they are adults. So the big question is should the age be raised or lowered?

I feel that lowering the drinking age to when teenagers start drinking around 16 would do absolutely nothing. Teenagers are able to get their drivers license at 16 but are not legal to drink. But teenagers have so many ways to access alcohol so making it legal would do nothing but making it ok for teens to get behind a wheel impaired. The argument believes that lowering the drinking age would create positive effects because they believe that teens will grow out of it and learn the effects but coming from me as a teenager I believe it would just cause teens to legally get drunk and do the same things that they want to prevent like unprotected sex and injuries. I feel like lowering the age would be taking the easy way out and that’s not what should happen.

The argument also had an argument about rising the drinking age to 21 like the United States. I disagree just as much to that as lowering it. People create stereotypes about teens saying when there 19 they are immature, just interested in sex but this isn’t what all teens are like. Many of them