Pros and Cons of a Lower Drinking Age

http://drinkingage.procon.org/ 

This article accurately depicts the discussion over the drinking age. It presents pros and cons and the scientific evidence to back it up. What you notice on this list is that the cons list is much shorter than the pros list. With all this balanced knowledge it makes it easier to see that a lowered drinking age is the right choice. This article attacks the information from all sides including information that very few people knew about. For example the federal government bribed 30 states, who had lowered their drinking age, to raise their drinking age to 21 or lose millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

While the cons present many scary results what they don't address is the fact that many of these can be prevented with the proper knowledge. For example, teens who drink alcohol are more likely to binge drink rather than people who are of legal drinking age. However if these teens were properly education on how to drink responsibly that would not be an issue. Another preemptive measure that would be taken, should we reduce the drinking age, would be that to be able to drink you would need to pass a test. Much like drivers ed for getting a license, you would need to take a test and pass to get the right to drink.


 In addition to the cons being less, the pros are much more substantial. Even though the states are given the right to choose what their minimum drinking age should be the government is bribing those states who wished to keep their drinking age under 21. They told these states that if they didn't comply with this change they would take away millions of dollars in federal funds. When the United States decreased the drinking age in the 1980's the rate of traffic fatalities decreased to less than that of a European country whose drinking age was less than 21.