Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

At age 16, you can get your driver’s license. At age 18, you can fight in the Army, vote, and smoke. So why is it that you have to be 21 to drink?

In the United States, anyone under the age of 21 is banned from consuming alcohol unless it is for religious purposes. However, prohibited activities seem all the more appealing in the eyes of teenagers. Drinking seems like such an “adult” thing to do. In the U.S. today, many teenagers drink just for the sake of breaking the law and looking “cool,” not necessarily because they like the taste of alcohol.

This summer when I visited China (which has no age restriction on drinking), I found that most of the teenagers there were not interested in alcohol. To them, alcohol was just like any other beverage; if they didn’t like the taste of it, they didn’t drink it. There was no pressure for them to drink in order to “look cool.”

As a result, teen drinking is not a major problem in China. In fact, cans of beer are even sold in vending machines alongside soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi.

It seems absurd that in the U.S., a person can legally drive a car before having a sip of wine. Having a can of beer will probably not make a 16-year-old drunk, whereas a careless 16-year-old driver can easily lose his or her life in a car accident.

Although it is technically illegal for those under the age of 21 to drink, teenagers can still get alcohol from family members, friends, or by using fake IDs. They tend to obtain “hard liquor,” which is easier to hide and has a much higher level of alcohol concentration than wine or beer.

I think the minimum legal drinking age in the U.S., at least for beer and wine, should be significantly lowered. This way, drinking will no longer have such a risky appeal to it. Teenagers can learn to drink in moderation before taking on “hard liquors” like vodka and tequila.

Plus, even if someone was crazy enough to endanger their life in the drink-21-shots-on-your-21st-birthday tradition, at least it won’t require 21 shots to celebrate their birthday anymore.

— Elaine Gu