s or responsibilities. Instead, they seemingly assume that, upon reaching the legal age of twenty-one, those “children” will somehow know their limits and be able to control themselves with alcohol and other such substances. III. A. The drinking age should be lowered to 16. As fare as I know five (six) developed nations in Europe have minimum drinking age of 16 (Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain- Germany-for beer and wine only). But you have to remember that in those nations you are allowed to drive at age of 18. With the focus on education about safe drinking instead of restriction, many problems would have averted. American teenagers, unlike European teens, do not learn how to drink gradually, safely and in moderation. Though the per capita consumption of alcohol in countries like France, Spain, and Portugal is greater then in the U.S., the rate of alcoholism and alcohol abuse is lower. This comes from education and gradual drinking. B. Why 16, why not 18? Well, one of my big concerns is drinking and driving. I feel that it is not safe to introduce driving before drinking to youths. Lowering drinking age on 18 will just make alcohol more available for 16 years old kids who are not allowed to drink, but can drive. In many European counties kids are allowed to drive at age of 18, and also at that time they are allowed to drink, if not even earlier. In that way they learn what alcohol is and what it can do to you. I strongly believe that those changes would reduce alcohol-related accidents. C. I know what you think right now. You probably think like, “O, I don’t want my 16 year old kid to drink. Neither do I, but can we stop them? Who was there to stop those 10.5 million kids today, ages from twelve to twenty that already consumed alcohol. Of this number, 5.1 million are engaging in binge drinking. Do you know that 80.4% of students in grade 9 through 12 will have had at least one drink of alcohol in thei...
