What is the positive influence of drinking alcohol?

Does anyone think the legal drinking age of 21 is too high?

• Here's why I think it is too high, and should be lowered to 18: -People are legal adults at age 18, meaning they can fight in wars, marry, have sex, smoke, vote for our President, drive, and a lot of other things. I find it wrong that we can get charged with a juvenile kind of crime (underage drinking) as a legal adult for 3 possible years. -The high drinking age encourages people to drink underage, because they find it fun to drink illegally. People do the majority of their illegal drinking once they're 18, since that's when they're in college, away from their parents. Make the drinking age 18, not as much underage drinking will happen, since most people under 18 are still at home. And once I turn 21, I know that getting wasted isn't going to be nearly as fun, because I won't be breaking any laws. And I won't be drinking as much either, since it'll be legal. Sometimes its actually fun to break laws, if it doesn't endanger other people. -The drinking age encourages underage kids to get fake IDs. Ever since 9/11, fake IDs have been seen as a major danger to this country, because a terrorist could use one to board a flight or something. If the drinking age was lowered, we might be seeing less fake IDs, and therefore won't have to worry about terrorists as much. -Liquor stores that are near colleges, or are in college towns, would probably make more money and have a better business if all college kids could drink, since most are at least 18. In conclusion, the reason the drinking age is so high is because of the significant increase in deaths that would happen from lowering the bar. But part of the reason many people drive under the influence is simply because they know the penalties aren't very harsh, and they will basically get a slap on the wrist, at least for a first offense. Maybe harsher DUI penalties will move this country in the right direction. I know some people on here are going to say that alcohol is bad for a developing brain. But that is NOT why the law is in place. The law was created strictly to prevent DUIs. And also, to those who really think alcohol is bad for a developing brain, how come the rest of the world doesn't have a problem with people drinking under 21 (most countries have a drinking age no higher than 18)?

• Answer:

  "NO - if anything it should be HIGHER due to irresponsible / immature drinkers, regardless of age. Those in the army are volunteers, not lured in as in the past." What the hell would raising it do? Nobody teaches their children how to responsibly drink anymore, so what do you expect to be the outcome of a higher drinking age when nobody knows what moderation even means, and ADULTS have to wait more than three years (already ridiculous) to have an ADULT beverage? The drinking age of 21 DOESN'T WORK and a higher drinking age won't work either. You say you know a lot of binge drinkers, do you know why they binge drink? They don't know any better. Their whole life their parents would ground them if they even looked at a beer wrong. Then anytime their parents were out of the picture they would drink as much as they could because they don't know when they can drink again. Nobody taught them to drink responsibly, health classes in high school aren't teaching it, and parents aren't teaching it, so where do they learn it from? The drinking age of 21 isn't exactly coaxing anyone to teach anyone how to responsibly drink either. So yeah, lets raise the drinking age, that will fix all of our problems. To the original poster: It should be 18. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I could write about 5 pages of evidence defending a lower drinking age, including faults in the drinking age of 21. I've posted them numerous times as other answers, so check them out if you're interested.