Should the legal drinking age be changed to 18?

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Legal Drinking Age should not be changed to 18
Introduction
The issue of the legal drinking age has led to a number of debates in the United States. Currently, the legal drinking age in the United States is 21 years. This is different from the most of the countries in which the legal drinking age is 18 years. Many people in the United States feel that the law should be changed to lower the legal drinking age to 18 years. Different people have different arguments on why the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 years. Teenagers are the most affected people by the legal drinking age. Teenagers, especially the college students fall in the ages discussed about the legal drinking age. This research paper opposes the argument that the legal drinking age should be changed to 18.
Legal Drinking Age should not be changed to 18
Different arguments have been raised on why the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18. The most common argument is based on the voting age. A person aged 18 years is allowed to participate in presidential elections. As such, people have argued that a person that can choose the president of the United States is mature enough to decide whether to consume alcohol or not. Although this argument has logic and makes sense, it does not consider the reason why the legal drinking age has been set at 21. The legal drinking age was set because alcohol consumption has consequences and that prevention measures are necessary especially to the adolescents and students in college (Wechsler and Nelson 986). The setting of the minimum drinking age to 21 years is a control policy meant to protect the youths. Advocacy groups that argue in support of lowering the legal drinking age to 18 years should therefore not be tolerated. It is important for the teachers, parents, and guardians to teach the children on the importance of avoiding alcohol. In addition, they should assist the government is enforcing the current minimum drinking age.
Some debaters argue that 18-year-old teenagers are less tolerant compared to the 21 year old. Although this statement may be true, it is not possible for a person to know how much s/he can handle unless s/he tries it out. This means that the age of a person cannot be relied upon as the ultimate measure of the level of tolerance that s/he can handle. This factor has facilitated the argument that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. This argument can be criticized from a logical point of view. It is hard for an 18 year old to have the same tolerance level with a 21 year old. Age is an important factor in physical and psychological development of all human beings. As such, age becomes an important element in enacting the legislations that regulate consumption of alcohol and drugs. The legislation that has set the legal drinking age as 21 years is based on the current trends in drinking and the associated consequences. Most of the pe...