Cameron Mcquerry
Mr. Kerber
ENG 101
13 February 2015 Can you drink? After a person in the United States reached the age 18 they are no longer considered juvenile. The united states law defines an adult as a person who by virtue of attaining a certain age, generally eighteen, is regarded in the eyes of the law as being able to manage his or her own affairs. They have the right to choose their political leaders, purchase certain firearms and ammunition, and even enlist in the military. They are considered legally independent adults. However, they are denied a very simple right: the right to purchase or consume alcoholic beverages. A twenty-year-old man or woman can go legally kill people or be killed for his country, or can be held sole responsible for any actions they have taken in a court of law, but he or she would be denied the right to have a beer or wine with his dinner.

These lack of rights make people under the age of 21 second-class citizens. Or yet not fully adults but yet They are not immature children, they are grown adults that can make decisions for themselves. Many of these legally defined “children” are the soldiers that die for America. It is a legal hypocrisy; adults are not able to assume their full rights. The consumption of alcohol is not the issue as much as the fact that the hypocritical ageism in the legal system that denies adults fundamental rights. I'm sure the African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement did not mind drinking out of a different water fountain. They demanded change because they were seen as second-class citizens. The denial of basic rights is absurd. These adults want to be treated as they should be treated. If they are able and held legally responsible to manage their own affairs then they should also be legally responsible enough to drink and suffer the things that come with being irresponsible with alcohol.

The purpose of having the legal drinking age at 21 is supposedly to protect children from the negative effects of alcohol. However, having the drinking age so high has the opposite effect on teens. According to a study the Center for Disease control (CDC) conducted in 2013 in high schools across the US 5% drank some amount of alcohol and 21% binge drank. Not having alcohol normal and easily accessible has made teens tend to drink more excessively when they have the chance. Binge drinking is very dangerous and it can lead to severe complications, which means death in many cases. Also in the same study conducted by the CDC states “Although drinking by persons under the age of 21 is illegal, people aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States. More than 90% of this alcohol is consumed in the form of binge drinks. On average, underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers. In 2010, there were approximately 189,000