Something that many states have been debating about is lowering the legal drinking age even lower from the age of 21 to age 18. people have been running into the law from time to time because they were not old enough, therefore they broke the law just to get a drink. the government then allowed many states to lower it. Although this is not something that is debated often, it should be. I strongly believe that the drinking age should be lowered because it can prevent car accidents, young people getting into trouble with the law, and save people from very violent/destructive actions and death.

One reason to lower the drinking age is that it can prevent drunk driving and car accidents. “In several other countries there aren’t as many accidents involving drunk driving with people at the age of 18,” according to Procon.org.(Al-Tabtabai 1992) Most car accidents happen by young people who had just become newly legal drivers. It doesn’t matter what age they are! Some of these people weren’t even drunk. “There are some states that allow those under 21 to drink at home under parent supervision,”(Al-Tabtabai 1992). This can help them become more used to it or they’ll already know how their body reacts to it before they go out and start drinking.
Another reason is that it can help prevent less and less people from suffering the consequences of the law. “The 21 year old drinking age has pushed young adult and adolescent drinking behind closed doors away from supervision by parents, residence like staff, and other adult authority figures,”ssdp.org/campaigns/lowering-drinking-age/.   This happens with a lot of students in college or who are away from home. By lowering the age, parnets can keep a close eye on their kids and keep them out of trouble. “Contact your federal represenatives and tell them that a drinking age of 21 is hurting their student constituents,”ssdp.org/campaigns/lowering-drinking-age/ By the age of 18 many students in college or i  their senior year in high school, would be having their first drink anyway. So it wouldn't be fair to them because they don’t exactly know that they are doing something wrong.

The final reason is that it can help stop violent/destructive actions and even death. “Italians, Greeks, Chinese and Jews, who have few related drinking problems tend to share some common characteristics. Irresponsible drinking is not tolerated.” According to (Hensel et al. 2014), . In these places young people learn how to drink properly and safely by an adult. Also by starting at a young age, they can become more immune to it so they don’t have very many drinking problems in the future. “There is no significant difference between students with positive or negative family backgrounds in relation to problem drinking.” (Hensel et al. 2014) Some may have bad backgrounds  which can increase abusive drinking, but as long as students have a high level of maturity, there shouldn’t be as many problems with drinking.

Now, those were some of the many reasons why it should be lowered. But, there are people who may have some disagreements. They may say things like, “Lowering the drinking age can increase the number of teens drinking in bars which is unsafe, or keeping the age at 21 can help reduce and prevent car accidents and violent actions. Although both may be true, there are actually fewer accidents that involve 18 year old people. A lot more accidents seem to happen with people who are older than at least 20. Also before going to bars they can get proper training at home first.

I believe the drinking age should be lowered because it can reduce a lot of dangerous and rule breaking cases. Also parents wouldn’t have to worry about their kids being injured or dead. If we act now, we can save millions of lives if you really think about it. I think that sometime in the future, people will reconsider things and give it a try.

Sources/bibliography info

Drinking Age ProCon.org

ssdp.org/campaigns/lowering-drinking-age/

www.nurseeducationtoday.com/article/S0260-6917(13)00324-9/abstract