“The Patriot” takes an inside look at benefits and consequences to lowering the drinking age.  Here is the pro side.  To read the con, click here.

At the age of 18, a person is allowed smoke cigarettes, go to college, live by themselves and join the military. In fact, you are legally considered an adult.

However, drinking alcohol seems to be too much of a responsibility for an 18 year old.

Most of the time, I feel that the set drinking age of 21 years old, as opposed to European countries where the drinking ages range from 16-18 years old, hinders what it is designed to do. The reason that the drinking age is set so high is to prevent underage drinking.

This is so ineffective that it’s scary.

Obviously, the government thinks that if alcohol is hard to come by, then most teens won’t drink it. But the government is dreaming if they believe that teenagers say, “I can’t buy alcohol, so let’s go play scrabble!” Most likely, teenagers will be more inclined to find a way to obtain alcohol, get drunk, and make regrettable decisions.

Unfortunately, underage drinking usually does lead to teenagers making poor choices. Often times the reason behind this is because in the United States, alcohol equals partying away from their parents. However, if it was legal to drink, parents could influence the experimentation with alcohol and change the meaning of alcohol to their child while their kid is still living under their protection.

In addition, alcohol paired with driving a vehicle has become a substantial issue amongst American teenagers.   When kids are driving drunk, it’s usually because they are returning home from their friend’s house. Without parents at home, the teenager has the freedom to simply hop in the car and drive his or herself home. But, if the teenager was coming home from a bar, it would be a different story.  In most bars, they won’t let you drive home if you are intoxicated.

Even if the kids are still drinking at  their friend’s house, they would be able to call their parents for a ride home.  I don’t drink, but if I did, I know I couldn’t call my parents and say “Mom I’m pretty much drunk right now, can you take me home?” If I did that my parents would grill me with questions and claim I was an alcoholic. If it was perfectly legal for me to drink, that phone call home would be no problem. There would be significantly fewer drunk drivers who are under the age of 21.

In many other countries the drinking age is even lower then 18. In France and Spain, the drinking age is 18, and in Germany, the drinking age is 16, just a few common examples of European countries with a lower drinking age.

Why do we have such a high drinking age? Do we think that the American people have a higher moral standing when it comes to alcohol consumption that other countries? Come on, America is the nation that produced The Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. There are many other issues we need to be concerned about before we start worrying about the drinking age.   

The truth is  that there isis really no valid reason for the drinking age to be so .   This hurts more than it helps. The drinking age was 18 in the 80’s when our parents were growing up. Did our parents turn out so bad?

Ryan Lina is a Reporter for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com.