The Drinking Age

The drinking age is fine, if anything is should get raised. It is hard to ignore the fact that this law is broken everyday. It's the 90's and all teens just want to fit in. Today kids are drinking at a much younger age, even 10 year olds and 11 year olds are trying to fit in with the older kids. Like myself it's amazing and sometimes funny what kids will do just to fit in with the "good" crowd, which which often are the druggies and drinkers. Our parents call them the "bad" crowd with good reason.

By law the minimum drinking age in Texas and all other states is 21. Each state gets to pick the age. On July 17, 1984 President Reagan passed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act which let the states implement then drinking age to 21, because if they were to lower it then the state lost its federal funding. An article in SAFEROADS reminds that,"91.79% of Americans want the 21-year-old drinking age to be strictly enforced." The estimated number of lives lost between 1975 and 1984 is estimated to be about 5,530. The lives that were saved since the law was passed was an estimated 8,438. A report states that the rate of underage purchases of alcohol in 1996 was at its lowest point since 1982. Drinking and driving rates have fallen 46 to 84 percent since 1982. Many teenagers say that they have riden with a person under the age of 21 that is either influenced by alcohol or weed. The New York Study quoted,"A Government Accounting Office study in 1987 concluded that raising the drinking age reduced alcohol-related crashes and probably reduced alcohol consumption." The worst place where under age alcohol drinking law is broken is parties.

Here's what parties today look like for teens. The setting is a

house with no adults around to say what's wrong. The people are a

bunch of teens of both sexes. This environment encourages any kind of drugs and or alcohol! From hard liquor like Aftershock and Jack Daniel's to the lighter stuff like beer, wine, and wine coolers. Along with this peer pressure today forces kids into drinking. At a party everyone usually leaves at some time and that means the one's that have been drinking too.

Teens that drink and drive are in big trouble and are at a greater risk. I'm not blaming all of the drinking related accidents on teens

either. Drunk drivers are of all ages. And I'm not trying to say that

all teens drink either. But the ones that do and are stupid enough to

say they are sober enough to drive home safely are putting innocent

citizens at risk. The drunk teens that drive are looking at getting

their license revoked, a night in jail, their cars impounded, getting a DUI, and of course, kill themselves or another person.

At parties where teens get drunk, they can easily forget

things. A lot of times that's where teens get pregnant. The

girls don't always know they're pregnant so they continue to drink, which is bad for their baby. When they have unprotected sex there's the risk of sexual transmitted diseases.

All of this can be avoided if the 21 age limit is increased to an even higher age. If it was passed to 25, people that are 25 usually have matured enough to know how much to drink just to have a good time and not get drunk. If the age was 25 then it would be harder for teenagers to get it. All gas stations should scan license and check for authenticy. If an adult gets caught buying alcohol for minors it should be treated as a major offense and be punished accordingly.

All together I think it's pretty insane to even think about

lowering the drinking age to 18. There will be even more illegal

drinking if they knock down the age. There is always the argument; "If

you are old enough to serve your country, you are old enough to drink."

It makes a good point, but in my opinion, most 18 year olds are not

mature enough to drink. I think that the drinking age should either stay the same or be increased.