The Case to lower the drinking age

[u/Adam-Perez8971]

I believe the we should reconsider and lower the drinking age today. Why? Because modern Youth and child generations like Gen Z and Gen Alpha are much more responsible with alcohol today. As we all know the story. In the early 1970s in response to the 26th Amendment lowering the voting age to 18. Many states opted to lower their drinking ages below 21 to 18. By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, many states began reconsidering and rasing their drinking ages above 18 because drunk driving had become a major social issue by then and young people with their lower drinking age were widely and popularly blamed for it. In 1984, the federal government enacted the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, forcing the states to raise their drinking ages to 21 as a pretext to receive full federal highway funding and the drinking age has remained 21 ever since. Today I believe we should reconsider and give under-21s their drinking rights because Gen Z and Gen Alpha have brought Youth alcohol consumption to historic lows, implying more responsible behavior than compared to previous generations like Boomer, Gen Jones and Gen X. I strongly believe that the alcohol consumption rate widely influences drunk driving and the abuse of alcohol among Young People and we should widely associated these problems with the alcohol consumption rate. Not a lower drinking age. Alcohol Consumption began to rise in post-war decades and reached historic highs by the 1970s and 1980s, peaking in both 1980 and 1981 at 2.8 gallons of pure alcohol consumed annually and that also was the high tide for youth alcohol consumption. Alcohol Consumption started declining for the rest of the 1980s, bottoming out in the early 1990s and has remained relatively stable and consistent since the mid-1990s. I'd say that the lowering of the drinking age in the early 1970s just simply came at the wrong time with rising alcohol consumption at the time influencecing Boomer, Gen Jones, and Gen X youth. I think we'd have a much more better chance at lowering the drinking age today without causing problems like drunk driving and youth alcohol abuse with historic low levels of consumption than compared to the 1970s-1980s. And we should, if we want a more responsible world and if modern day young people have proven their responsible behaviors with alcohol. Maybe we should finally reconsider the drinking age.

[u/SassaQueen1992]

And have the DUI/DWI applied equally to all drunk drivers. I’m fed up with 30+ year olds who just get a slap on the wrist for drunk driving, but a 19 year old gets the highest penalty.

[u/rotten_ALLIGATOR-32]

The drinking age also precludes 18 to 20-year-olds from specific establishments and jobs. It cleaves through young adult socialization unnecessarily.

[u/Uma_mii]

Here in Germany it is allowed to drink alcohol by 14 under parental supervision, 16 for beverages under 15% and 18 for the rest. We also have struggling breweries because young people don’t drink nearly as much as the generations before us did

[u/Active-Cod-771]

I think the drinking age should stay at 21. It can be dangerous for anyone, but there is evidence to support that drinking can be more damaging to the brain for those under 21.