Currently in the United States, you must be at least 21 years of age in order to purchase or consume alcohol. Why does the age limit have to be 21? Why not 18? It’s because of the obvious dangers and long-term damage alcohol has been proven to do on the body, one must wonder why it is legal to drink or produce alcohol in the first place. Underage drinking has become a serious epidemic in this country. While most will agree, that the laws do need to be changed, the majority of the people think they should be more stringent and restrictive.
Today, most young adults start drinking early in their high school years at social gatherings. During those years, they endure many changes in their lives. They think that if they don’t drink like their fellow friends, they will not fit in. What they don’t know is that their body is still growing and alcohol can lead to many complications early in life. In many cultures drinking as a young adult is not frowned upon, you are encouraged to have alcohol in moderation.
At the age of eighteen, a young man or woman gains all rights as an adult, yet he or she can still not consume alcohol. . “In 1984, a law was passed prohibiting the consumption of alcohol to those individuals under the age of twenty-one. The argument and support behind this law was based solely on safety issues; however, education and a higher awareness would virtually solve this supposed "problem."”(postdam.edu) Young adults enter in the workplace or begin college at this time (eighteen) in their lives. Yet, the public population feels these individuals are not mature enough to drink; however, the real reason that the government and states do not want to lower the drinking age is due to the fact that they would lose millions of dollars in federal highway money. “State laws adopted in the mid-1980s under pressure from Congress, which threatened in 1984 to withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds from states that did not prohibit selling alcohol to those under...