by Mary Beall

Montana high schoolers love their drugs. In Montana, 31.6% of Montanans aged 12 to 20 consumed alcohol in the past month, and 24% of 12 to 20 year olds participated in binge drinking in the past month. Across the country, 12.5 million underage teens drink each year. In fact in 2005 underage teen drinking consumed 15% of all alcohol sold in the United States, totaling $19.8 billion in sales. Underage drinking costs tax payers $61.9 billion a year in medical costs and lost days of work. The topic of alcohol always seems to incite the fiery question as to whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 or remain at 21.

Lower It To 18!

“I understand the effects of alcohol on a developing person but it doesn’t make much sense to tell 18 year olds they can move out, get married, join the army, [do] everything but drink. This only makes them want to drink more.” Courtney Hauck

The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that among high school students, during the past 30 days:45% drank some amount of alcohol, 26% binge drank, 11% drove after drinking alcohol and 29% rode with a driver who had been drinking. In 2007, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 39% of 8th graders and 72% of 12th graders had tried alcohol, and 16% of 8th graders and 44% of 12th graders drank during the past month.

The two above bullets prove that the status quo drinking age is not deterring or preventing underage drinking.

18 year old men can be drafted, and nearly all 18 year olds can buy rifles and shotguns, vote, and be prosecuted but can’t buy some alcohol. This makes no sense, especially since being drafted invokes the potentiality of death.

Lowering the drinking age will make alcohol less of a taboo, take away the thrill that many young people get from breaking the law, and make alcohol consumption a more normalized activity done in moderation.

Enforcing an MLDA of 21 is expensive and inefficient. Drinking is still a major problem among teens. It would be more effective to spend money on educating youth about alcohol than to spend it on enforcement of drinking laws for 18 to 20 year olds.

Keep It At 21

“There are way too many 18 year olds that aren’t responsible.” Erik Anderson

Raising the MLDA back to 21 has decreased the percentage of fatal traffic accidents for those between 18 to 20 by 13% and has saved approximately 21,887 lives from 1975 to 2002.

Current MLDA laws set at 21 are working because the percentage of underage drinkers has decreased since 1984.

Youth who start drinking before age 15 years are five times more likely to develop alcohol dependence or abuse later in life than those who begin drinking at or after age 21 years.

Alcohol consumption carries some deadly statistics; 40% of all traffic fatalities involved a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher, young adults 16 to 24 comprise only 20% of the total licensed population but caused 42% of all fatal alcohol related crashes, in fact underage alcohol use is more likely to kill youth than all other illegal drugs combined.

40% of all suicide attempts are alcohol-related; 54% of all violent crimes are alcohol-related; 60% of all emergency room admissions are alcohol-related; and 80% of all domestic disputes are alcohol-related.

While lowering the drinking age makes sense in comparison to 18 year old’s other responsiblities and rights, it does not make sense statistically or scientifically. The statistics regarding underage drinking prove that lowering the drinking age would do nothing for underage drinking fatalities. In my opinion, lowering the drinking age would exploit these statistics and increase fatalities and drinking rates. There are really no benefits to lowering the drinking age that outweigh an increase in fatalities and addiction.