October 27, 2008
Judge Tom
4

Lower drinking age to 18? What do you think?

College presidents from 100 well-known U.S. universities are calling for a discussion about lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18.  Did you ever think this would be a serious debate?

Schools including Syracuse, Tufts, Duke and Dartmouth universities are among those schools pushing the discussion about this.  The pros and cons include:

Pros: 

  • -lowering the age will cut back on binge drinking
  • -users will drink less because it’s legal
  • -users will develop responsible drinking habits before college  
  • -21 is the highest drinking age in the world      
  • -18 to 21 year-olds can vote and join the military, but can’t have a beer

Photo by Saquan Stimpson

Cons:

  • -40% of college kids have at least one symptom of alcoholism or dependence on alcohol  
  • -over 500,000 alcohol-related injuries each year, and 1,700 deaths

What do you think about this proposal?  Should the drinking age be lowered to 18, including those still in high school? Would this have an effect on high school events, football games, proms, driving on campus?  Across the nation, laws are tightening on new drivers – should alcohol be thrown into the mix?

Judge Tom

The Author Judge Tom

Judge Tom is the founder and moderator of AsktheJudge.info. He is a retired juvenile judge and spent 23 years on the bench. He has written several books for lawyers and judges as well as teens and parents including 'Teen Cyberbullying Investigated' (Free Spirit Publishing) and 'Every Vote Matters: the Power of Your Voice, from Student Elections to the Supreme Court' (Free Spirit Publishing). In 2020, the American Bar Association published "Cyberbullying Law," the nation's first case-law book written for lawyers, judges and law students. When he's not answering teens' questions, Judge Tom volunteers with the American Red Cross and can be found hiking, traveling and reading.

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4 Comments

  • USMC POOLIE
    April 21, 2011 6:07 pm count( 0 )

    Only 18 year old service men and women….

  • Jackie
    February 2, 2010 1:41 am count( 1 )

    I think it should be lower to 18 because if can do anythin else in 18 and ur consider an adult y not be able to get or drink acholoc nither and same way in smoking how come can get cigerattes at 18 and not acholoc? People say if lower it it wpuld be bad cause alot of people doing it now but only doint it because they know they cant until their 21 but if bring it down to 18 people would less drink and if they do stupid things then thats on them they have to deal with the consequense themselve but if you say drinkinq and drivinq them must be illegal to even to get acholoic cause even people who 21 and over do stupid things but them again thats on themselve and they deal with the conseqiences ..
    Thank you for your comments Jackie.

  • Anthony
    September 25, 2009 12:01 pm count( 2 )

    Well i think it should becuase it should

  • Rek
    June 23, 2009 3:28 pm count( 3 )

    One of the main points of the age is the fact around age 22 is when the brain has stopped growing and the mental state is almost complete. During teenage years, at 18 we are just opening it for them to drink and drive. It will either lower the drinking and driving death rate of 18 because it won’t be such a sought after bad thing for teens to do mentally, or will increase such a negative effect on teens that it will quickly go back to 21.