Dear Mr. Chapman,
I am writing this letter in response your opinion about keeping the drinking age at 21. You have made some very good points about why the drinking age should be kept at 21. I am very glad to read that drinking and driving statistics have gone down since 1988, when the drinking age was increased to 21 again, as well as the decrease in binge drinkers. However, the problem is not solely based on the drinking age; it is also influenced on many other factors. My reasons for lowering the drinking age is to see who wants it to be lowered, why is 21 the age one becomes mature enough to drink but an 18 year old can shot someone, how smart are people when they turn 21, why is it that Europe has people drinking before they drive.
I have read quite a few articles about the presidents of major colleges wanting to lower the drinking age to 18. Three out of the one hundred colleges that are asking to lower the drinking age to 18 are Duke, Dartmouth, and Ohio State. I personally believe these to be very well respected colleges, and if the presidents of these colleges are asking to do this there must be some good reasoning. The presidents believe that the current legal drinking age is just encouraging binge drinkers. When the drinking age was lower to 18 the binge drinking was slightly increased; however, when students were asked if they drank on daily basis those students were probably more honest because they were allowed to drink . If you do not know any of the students personally they might lie and say they never drink when they really do. Drinking actually decreased due to the fact that from the year 1998 to 2005 the total amount of deaths caused by alcohol is only 157 according to Associated Press analysis of federal records, that’s only an estimated 27 deaths a year. This may sound heartless, but think about the total amount of people that die every hour 9,703 on average. The 27 that die in a year due to drinking does not even begin to compare....