This summer I went to Rome for vacation. While not being like the Romans, I walked around the town and went to all the major sites, something that a Roman wouldn’t do. On my trip the major story was how the government was trying to raise the drinking age to 16. Sixteen like the number, one and six. That’s five years away from where the United States drinking age is. Why? Why is it so low? I don’t know and this isn’t about why it is so low, but more or less why ours is so high and why the government shields us from alcohol.
We all have herd countless times, oh alcohol wrecks your liver and it is so bad for you. Supposedly the United States sets it at 21 because at that age limit because the mind and body is mature enough to consume it. But then why is Europe’s drinking age so low as 14 or 16? Did they not get the memo or something? Or is the government just being too protective and untrusting with the people on our side?
If you have ever been to Europe all the kids smoke but yet very little of them are alcoholics or drink to get drunk. They all are able to get alcohol so easily because it’s legal, so why don’t they just go crazy and get drunk like our teens? It’s all because of exposure. The kids over there have been taking sips of wine since they were 5. Their parents drink all the time and their parents let them have it when they want. In Europe it is not as big of a deal drinking at a young age as it is here. Here when kids finally get around the stuff they have never had it, so they just want to drink as much as possible.
So let’s say you are at party, with alcohol and all your friends are drinking. Naturally if you are against it or worried you will refuse, but most people will take a drink. When people go to those kinds of parties they do not go to have fun, they go to get messed up. They get crazy drunk, and when around it they go, “Woo alcohol I never have this let’s get really drunk.” Why do they do this and Europeans don’t? Because drinking and getting drunk is almost a way to American teens to slap the “man” across the face and say, “Ha I’m not following the rules.” In Europe when you get drunk, you are not being a rebel or going against the “man,” they it’s not as cool as here.
Another reason as to why kids in America like to drink and get drunk is because pop culture makes such a big deal about it. If a movie star gets drunk there is news about it, if a man drives drunk there’s a big news story about it. There are always bills going through legislature on alcohol. When growing up we are always told, never drink, never do those things. It’s almost when we are growing up that we are unconsciously surrounded with alcohol, and are minds are filled with thoughts about it.
If the government didn’t make such a big deal about how alcohol was so bad, then teens all across the states wouldn’t feel the need to get drunk to rebel. In Europe they don’t have a drinking problem because kids grow up with good exposure to it, and it is legal at a young age making it less of a thing. When kid in America grow up they are exposed to such bad ideas about it and such bad influences that once they are old enough to go out alone they want to try it because they want to see how bad it really is. The government needs to rethink this idea of shielding us and making a big deal about it, because it isn’t making us want to never drink, but instead go out and get drunk. It’s very ironic how Europe is so relaxed about it and they don’t have any problems with it and in America they try so hard to stop it and yet teens still try to get drunk.