Do you remember your first taste of alcohol? How old were you? Twenty-one? All 50 states currently demand that their citizens reach age 21 before they can legally drink. But there's a growing movement that says mandatory minimum laws may do more harm than good. When determining the right date when a young person can take one of their final steps towards personal responsibility and freedom, what's the right answer?
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Let's keep it as is
Education and experience, not prohibition
When I was 18, I spent several months in Sweden, where the drinking age is 18. As a teenager, I drank alcohol at home, but many of my friends had to sneak off to parties and drink all they could when they had the chance. When I went out in the world and had the opportunity to legally drink, it just wasn't that interesting.
The ferry between Copenhagen and Sweden was the only place where I ever saw drunk, disruptive people in Scandinavia. There is no drinking age in Denmark, so there were often drunk Swedish teenagers on their way back from a drinking spree.
We need to take away from the fascination with alcohol. If parents have a drink with their kids and teach them important factors, such as knowing when to stop, it would be far less dangerous than forcing kids -- and legal adults -- to sneak around. Also, it might steer teens away from harder drugs, as it is often easier for a teen to obtain marijuana or crack than it is to get some booze.
- CandieKelty August 27, 2008 1:32PM
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