Lowering the Drinking Age

Because the voting age is eighteen, some people believe that the drinking age should be eighteen. I disagree with this because of maturity levels, judgment, and the fact that it has been tried before and failed.

When you're eighteen, you're not extremely mature. You're just out of high school, and haven't had your driver's liscense very long. Becase of this, you don't have enough driving experience to be able to even drive well sober , nevermind drunk. And you know many peopole will not be driving sober, especially since they would have legal permission to drink.

At eighteen years old, your judgment isn't fully devolped. You may think that your body can handle the alcohol, but it can't. You can get alcohol posioning much easier, and you aren't paying attention to how much you drink.

My last and strongest argument is that fact that this has already been tried, and it failed. During the Vietnam war, soldiers argued that if eighteen was old enough to be drafted, it was old enough to drink. The drinking age was lowered to eighteen, and it didn't work then. What makes people think it would work now? The only people who want the drinking age lowered are teenagers.

In conclusion, I can't see any reason to lower the drinking age to eighteen. it has been done, and failed. Why should we let it fail again?

~CL
Written: March 23, 1998 for English class.
Grade: B+