The way I see it is underage drinking is happening all around us and there really isn’t anything we can do about it. College and highschool students alike are finding ways to obtain alcohol and nothing is stopping them from doing it. Teenagers are known rebel against the rules and this no exception, as Jeffrey Tucker says in the article above, “Human beings are remarkable things: when they want to do something, no amount of tyranny, even that of jail, can stop them.
Even if people under 21 can’t legally buy alcohol that is nothing a fake ID can’t fix. They are starting to find more and more ways around these restrictions. Peer pressure plays a huge role in underage drinking. People in their teen year dont want to feel left out or not as cool as other people, they just want to fit in and be like everyone else so they go ahead and drink anyway regardless of their age. As a result of this underage drinkers are being killed and killing others in car accidents and being charged with DUI’s and being arrested. This creates further problems down the line when these things are on their records forever. By lowering the drinking age all these problems could be solved. For one thing I think that this way teenagers could be more open to their parents about these sorts of behaviours rather than sneaking behind their backs. Many parents sit with their kids and talk about things like sex and how they should protection but I think parents highly underestimate the impact a conversation about drinking responsibily can have on their kids. In other parts of the world the drinking age is 18 and even 16. This alows teenagers to feel more free about making their own choices rather than a law telling them they can’t do something. If leagally we are considered adults at the age of 18 and most people now get their licenses and can drive a car around 16/17 why cant we be given the responsibility of drinking around that age as well? Why can a person who is 21 buy alchol but a person who is only 20 cant eventhough the only difference is that one was born before the other?As parties become a part of college life more and more students are being exposed drinking. Feeling pressure from people around them to do it, feeling the pressure of the drinking law and the consequences to come, most people would give in.
Another statement by the author of the article, Tucker, that I strongly feel sums up the issue is that “With the two thirds and more of people under the age of 21 reporting that they have consumed alcohol in the last year, it should be obvious that the law is doing nothing but providing a gigantic excuse for arbitrary police-state impositions on human liberty, and also socializing young people in a habit of hypocrisy and law breaking”.
If underage drinking is going to happen anyways why implament a law that leads to more consequences to teenagers across the nation. Instead we need to find other more effective ways to teach our teenagers to be more responsible in their actions.