Drinking Age Lowered By Use of Permit

In the United States, the legal age of majority is eighteen. The day a young man or woman turns eighteen, they are given many responsibilities. They can vote for the country's next president. They can get a tattoo. They can do sentences in jail. They can also chose and even be forced to go to war.

There is only one thing that legal “adults” in the United States cannot do, however, and that is consume alcohol. Alcohol and its consumption are widely integrated into many social aspects of our country, where most social gatherings in the United States are not without the presence of alcohol.

The government labels eighteen year olds as responsible adults, yet tells them they are too irresponsible to be able to consume alcohol. There is however, a better alternative to denying persons under the age of 21 to drink. Educating the young population of the United States through alcohol awareness courses is a workable alternative to the high drinking age.

Teenagers are eligible to receive a learner’s permit to drive at the age of fifteen. In Florida, teenagers at age fifteen can drive at any time, however they must be accompanied with a licensed adult at all times. At age sixteen, teenagers can drive without adults, however their curfew for operating a motor vehicle is at eleven o’ clock. Seventeen year olds are allowed to drive for two hours later than sixteen year olds, and eighteen year old adults have no restrictions. These restrictions were put in place in attempts to teach teenagers to drive instead of throwing them on their faces in the roaring interstates and highways. This would be a great idea for drinkers as well.

Seventeen year olds would drink only with adults, eighteen year olds would have restrictions, nineteen year olds would have fewer restrictions than eighteen year olds while twenty year olds would have even less restriction than nineteen year olds. By the time young men and women are 21 years old, alcohol would not be as taboo, and binge drinking may not be as much of a problem overall.