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A Senior Seminar Editorial by Mary Slowey, MHS 2010

In the fall of 2008, a group of more than one hundred college presidents signed a declaration stating that the drinking age should be lowered to the age of eighteen.  This group included the presidents of prestigious schools such as Dartmouth, Virginia Tech and Duke.  The drinking age was raised to twenty one back in the mid-1980’s, but this change was obviously not very effective seeing as

.  Initially, the law was created to reduce the number of drunk driving accidents, but this comes with the cost of raising the number of off-road, alcohol related deaths.  In order to lower the number of underage drinkers, and therefore lower the number of alcohol related deaths in general, we should begin by first lowering the drinking age to eighteen, as the college presidents have proposed.

In today’s society, teens are being pressured to drink more than ever by their peers, sometimes without even realizing it. 

.  This creates a chain reaction leading their friends to begin drinking as well.  Just because no one is physically asking you to drink does not mean you are not being pressured. A teen feels the constant need to fit in, and therefore loses their own important values and takes on the opinions of their friends.  By making it legal to drink at eighteen, teens will not feel as rebellious and dangerous while drinking because they are not breaking the law.  In the long run this will also reduce peer pressure, because there will be a lower number of teens who think drinking is ‘cool’.  Although this whole process may take a generation or two, idealistically this will eventually also lower the number of on and off road deaths because there will be less teens drinking in general.

In the meantime, drinking while in high school is inevitable.  Unfortunately, students around the country have come to consider it one of their favorite hobbies.  Today’s generation is  stuck on breaking the law because they are all looking up to their older role models who drink every weekend.  By making it illegal for them to do something they are going to do anyways creates dangerous situations.  Teens have begun drinking in unsafe areas, such as woods or over-crowded basements in order to hide from the police.  If they were not forced to gather in these areas there would be an immediate drop in the amount of deaths due to alcohol.  Once teens were allowed to drink in the open there would be more eyes watching for trouble, and safer places to be while intoxicated.  Parents would also be able to easily monitor their kids while they are drinking, and would be able to teach them how to handle their alcohol properly.  It will transfer the reasons for drinking back over to social gatherings, instead of the games teens play today consisting of who can drink the most, and who won’t get caught.

It is also a problem when an underage teen is drunk and needs help, because no one wants to be the kid to get in trouble with authorities while asking for help.  Consider the situation with Gordie, an eighteen year old freshman at the University of Colorado back in 2004. He was found dead the morning after his initiation to a frat house due to alcohol poisoning.  The other kids at the party knew he needed help, but everyone acted selfish in situation.  Without the fear of getting in trouble themselves for drinking, the other kids at the party could have called someone and saved Gordie’s life.  There are hundreds of instances like this around the country each year. It would be easier on everyone if it was legal for these kids to call for help, and

.

There is no doubt that phasing out underage drinking all together will take some time, but it is about time to get the ball rolling.  When changing the drinking age to eighteen there will be immediate effects that will benefit society, but more importantly will begin to pave the way for upcoming generations.  The sooner we start to end underage drinking, the sooner it will actually begin to end.  The smartest way to begin this process is by lowering the drinking age, and eventually we will get to a point where everyone will be safe, legal drinkers.