U.S. law states that the minimum drinking age is 21. Yet, every weekend thousands of kids under this age are breaking this law. The big question is why? Yes, some of these underage age drinkers buy alcohol because they like the taste or because they enjoy the feeling it gives them, although, they are not the majority. The majority choose to drink because they think it looks cool or because they enjoy rebelling authority ( Department of Health and Human Services. 163,164). Throughout history, people have always wanted what they could no

t have. When applying this to alcohol, the higher the drinking age, the more people under this age are going to try and obtain it. Lawmakers changed the minimum drinking age back in 1978 from 18 to 21, thinking that the older you are, the more responsible you are. Yet, these lawmakers didn’t take into account that responsibility comes with experience and teaching, not just age. The solution to less problems with alcohol does not lie with abstinence until the age of 21, but with teaching people how to drink responsibly at a younger age.

Giving an 8 year-old a D.A.R.E. T-shirt is not going to keep him from spilling beer all over it ten years later. If you show them videos about people getting killed in drunk driving accidents until it makes their heads spin, the fact still stands that people are curious by nature, and young people will drink as long as they continue seeing adults drinking. Something must be done about the alcohol abuse problem in this country, but why not start at the bottom? Teach children to drink responsibly when they are young. Stop pretending that just because kids should not drink, they don’t. In every town and in every state, kids drink. So ins

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