Should the Drinking Age be Lowered? Essay -- Law, Sociology

Although exceptions to every generality exist, alcohol is usually present in most gathering where adults are also in attendance. If one really examines the idea, alcohol is usually at every social event even if adults are not. At this point it would probably be important to know who actually is considered to be an adult. From country to country the answer varies but in the United States of America anyone of the age of eighteen is liable and treated just like adults of any age. Consequently, one could say that the previous statement is technically, in the majority of circumstances, incorrect in that when alcohol is around so are adults. When mentioned in such a way, nothing seems to be out of place except that in the United States the legal alcohol consumption age is twenty-one. There are not many sides one may take when contemplating this alcohol consumption law, one is either for it or against it. Many believe that if the drinking age is lowered it should rightfully be lowered to eighteen. These individuals have a number of reasons to support their ideology. John McCardell Jr. is one of those individuals and actually developed a complete organization in 2006 known as Choose Responsibility that promotes his philosophy (Cloud). McCardell Jr. is the head of Middlebury College and believes eighteen to twenty year olds should be eligible to consume alcoholic beverages as long as they are licensed (Cloud). To receive this license one must first complete a course that is around forty-two hours long and consists of the explanations of the chemistry, history, psychology, and sociology of alcohol that may include AA, alcoholics anonymous, meetings (Cloud). McCardell Jr., along with others, also believes that if one is considered an a... ...at can be done to minimize all the problems alcohol provides; I think the first step in assimilating a similar attitude is by education and through example from older adults to young adults. Maybe McCardell’s forty-two hour course of everything one should know to fully understand the results of consuming alcohol would be beneficial for the general public. With that being said the age should still remain twenty-one and adults should not be one-hundred percent intolerable towards teens that might have slipped some alcohol by, after all who has not broken a rule here and there? I believe if a little ignorance is given to the provocation it will disappear. Works Cited Cloud, John. "Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?" Time.com. Time US, 06 June 2008. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. Scrivo, Karen Lee. "Drinking on Campus." CQ Researcher 20 Mar. 1998: 241-64. Web. 5 Feb. 2012.