Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21?

Recommend (2) Comments (17)

In terms of both its laws and its culture surrounding alcohol, the United States is an anomaly. Only Indonesia, Mongolia, and Palau have drinking ages as high as 21; all the rest of the world has a drinking age that is either lower or non-existent. In virtually all other cultures, alcohol and its use is thought to differentiate between youth and adulthood. By separating the legal drinking age and the legal age of adulthood, the United States perpetuates a culture of intoxication and excess.  

One searches in vain for any evidence that the frightening predictions made by opponents of lowering the age—widespread brain impairment, significant alcohol dependency—have any basis in fact or experience in those countries where the drinking age is lower than 21. Recent research published by the World Health Organization found that while 15 and 16 year-old teens in many European states, where the drinking age is 18 or younger (and often unenforced), have more drinking occasions per month, they have fewer dangerous, intoxication occasions than their American counterparts. For example, in southern European countries ratios of all drinking occasions to intoxication occasions were quite low—roughly one in ten—while in the United States, almost half of all drinking occasions involving 15 and 16 year-olds resulted in intoxication.

Though its legal drinking age is highest among all the countries surveyed, the United States has a higher rate of dangerous intoxications per drinking occasions than many countries that not only have drinking ages that are lower or nonexistent, but also have much higher per capita consumption levels.