Jessica Rowan
Mr. Carrell
World Humanities
23 January 2012
Drink it Down to Teen Town Lowering the drinking age to 18, when one is considered to be the definition of an adult, would solve many problems facing the teen population today. With less temptations of a forbidden fruit, teens will no longer find drinking 'too much' as a fun pastime. Trailing Prohibition, lowering the drinking age to 18 to rid of binge drinking is more beneficial than maintaining the legal drinking age of 21 years old; kids will be smarter with their drinking habits, there will be less drunk driving accidents, and teens will not have to hide themselves in houses without any supervision. When an individual turns 18 years of age, many rights as a citizen are granted; voting rights, marriage, to become one within the army, own property, get a tattoo, adopt a child, make your own medical decision, and legally have a gun. Time to celebrate by hitting the bars!...psych. It does not make sense for someone to be able to choose what type of government they want to run their lives, decide how and with whom they want to spend their entire life attached to, put their life on the line for their country, live alone, alter their body in a way that can never be undone, be responsible for another human's life, decide what medication they want to ingest and what they don't want to ingest, or even own a weapon that could take the life of someone else; the never ending list implies that one has to be greatly matured, yet they are unable to sit down and have a beer when they please? An individual is not fully matured until between the ages 30-40. Does that imply that the drinking age should be set, for example, to 35? Forbidden fruit; any pleasure or enjoyment not legally permitted or authorized. Most teenagers who are given rules to follow, whether it be by the law or by their guardians, use it as a guideline of rules to break. When teens are told they are unable to drink until they are 21 years old, they see drinking as a forbidden fruit which they want because they are told they can not have it. When they have the chance to break the rules, they do it in a manner that they are uneducated about and they over-do it to a point where they can no longer control themselves. "Underage drinkers drink on fewer occasions, but when they drink they are more likely to binge drink" (Rasul). Until they are given the right to drink at a lower age, they are going to continue to abuse alcohol in a manner that is unhealthy. When alcohol can no longer be viewed as a forbidden fruit, the abuse will begin to decrease. When teenagers stop abusing alcohol, the drunk driving rate will also decrease. "60 percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol-related" (Wechsler). It does not make sense knowing that teenagers are allowed to drive before they are allowed to drink. Freedom to drive without parents allows more time to do illegal activities, such as drinking and driving to places on their own time, anytime. In Europe, the drinking age is between 16-18 years, depending on where exactly one is located. Europeans have a policy that is opposite of the way Americans do things; the drinking age is lower, and you have to be 18 to have your license. With a lower drinking age, Europeans are taught moderation of their alcohol, and the responsibility that comes alongside having the power to drink. Keeping the drinking age where it is and enforcing it as strictly as we do, it is just going to lead to dangerous results as we witness on a day to day basis with alcoholism, being much higher in America than it is in Europe, leading to more drunk driving deaths. On average, 8,000-9,000 Europeans die each year due to drunk driving accidents. In America, on average 13,000-14,000 Americans die each year due to drunk driving accidents. That is nearly a 4,000-5,000 person difference. Also, teens that do