Should the drinking age be lowered?

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Madelyn Reed, Guest Writer

Illegal drinking is common in high schools, colleges, work areas etc. I think the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 for several different reasons. Most people and students our age already drink illegally, so the number of people who drink around the age of 18 will not change significantly. When you turn 18 you have new permissions to things through your area, state, and even world.

For example, when you turn 18 you’re allowed to purchase nicotine products legally, instead of buying them illegally, or “off the streets”. If you are allowed to purchase cigarettes, vapes, juuls, and tobacco chew, then I think you should be allowed to purchase alcohol.

An 18 year old in the United States has the right to vote for the president of the US or go to the army, they should also be allowed to purchase alcohol. If someone can chose to put their life in danger and fight for our country, they should have permission to purchase alcohol.

Some argue that certain people, such as students, will use this to their advantage. For example, a lot of high schoolers have bigger friend groups with upperclassmen, so if you have a friend who is 18 they can purchase you alcohol, and you will still be drinking underage.

However, according to “livescience.com” high schoolers already DO drink alcohol underage. About 33% of high school students that were surveyed have consumed alcohol within the last 30 days. Therefore, lowering the age from 21 to 18 won’t change the amount of student drinkers by much. In n a poll of “beeradvocate.com”, 323 voters chose the legal age to be 18, making that 53.9%, over half of the voters. Only 116 voters chose the legal age to be 21, which is only about 19.4%.