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Lowering The National Drinking Age

A legal drinking age has been set and everyone knows that it is illegal to consume or purchase alcohol until the age of 21. Many people are in agreement with this legal restriction. Some would even have to legal drinking age raised it they had their way. However, the legal drinking age sometimes causes more problems than it prevents. American legislature should recognize that alcohol consumption among youth going to take place and seek to reduce the harm of that alcohol usage, rather than unrealistically try to keep young people from drinking at all. Congress and state legislatures could enable policies, some already in effect in other countries, to promote safer consumption. The United States should not automatically attach itself to one main policy and not open itself to any other alternatives that could possibly save lives.
It is necessary to question the drinking age law. Why is twenty-one the magical number that makes a person intelligent enough or mature enough to consume alcohol? Who is to say that just because an individual is twenty-one that he or she is mature enough to consume the alcohol in a responsible manner?(Hatfield 4) Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984. The law was passed to encourage states to change their legal drinking age to 21 or suffer decreased federal funding. Congress believed that if they raised the minimum drinking age that is would save a significant number of lives. They figured that a twenty-one year old was more mature than the average eighteen year old. During an alcohol summit held in Boulder Colorado, Boulder County Sheriff George Epp said, "There's a general belief that immature people are less likely to be able to handle the effects of alcohol, so our Congress has set an arbitrary limit."(Koroknay) This number is associated with adulthood, as if the day someone turns twenty-one they automatically know what it takes and are mature enough to drink.
We all know someone under twenty-one who can drink...