The US should lower the legal drinking age to 18

However, I disagree with Pro in the context that lowering the drinking age is the solution. Pro has stated that "ensure that they have a safe environment in which they can drink and learn responsible behavior around alcohol" is a preferable method compared to continuing to punish underage drinkers. This is a rather twisted way of "education". The fact that people do illegal things does not mean that said things should be legal. Underage alcohol consumption comes with many health risks which we all want to avoid. Apply the same concept to drugs. Preventing people from entering the black market is not an excuse for making drugs legal. In fact, lowering the legal drinking age to 18 will only give people the impression that it is okay to drink at 18, and thus encourage a larger proportion of the society to consume alcohol, which goes against promoting a healthy community. Concerning the quote from Barrett Seaman, I believe that Pro's point is invalid. Pro quotes that "That sort of moderating behavior is totally absent. So here's a whole generation of young people learning to drink from themselves, instead of from people who've had some experience with it. " However, Pro seems to have ignored the basic fact that those underage drinkers were drinking illegally according to current law. While it is true that if the drinkers were legally old enough to drink, they would less likely drink privately in what Pro says to be unsafe environments, it is also true that the same problem would occur with every single age. Should people stick to the law, they would have been able to drink, supervised by parents, older siblings or older friends, who "have had some experience with it". Concerning civility and "mingling", people socialise over many things such as sports. Alcohol isn't the only thing that keeps relationships running. Concerning Pro's example of Stanford, I apply the same logic used in the previous point. Legal drinkers can drink openly under the supervision of adults or older friends. These people can teach new drinkers to drink responsibly. As long as there are responsible adults around, MLDA 21 is not a problem, and the point brought up by Pro is invalid, since then lowering the MLDA to 18 would not improve the situation. Concerning decreasing chances of rape, this matter involves many factors such as location, quality of citizens and law enforcement. Pro has not proved that lower MLDAs directly cause lower rape rates. Concerning Pro's Rebuttals: 1. Medically dangerous While it is true that heavy alcohol use hurt people of any age, the matter is particularly serious for young adults (in early twenties) since it is in the early twenties that the brain completes a crucial step of development. Concerning Pro's point about binge drinking decreasing after age 21, evidence is to the contrary. The highest frequency of binge drinking by age was reported by persons aged X05;65 years (5.5 episodes per month). Pro tries to state here that the MLDA should be lowered to 18 because people would then become responsible drinkers sooner. However, this would actually cause many other problems, such as serious injuries, impaired judgment (Drinking can cause kids, especially those who have not matured, i. e. those below 21 to make poor decisions, which can then result in risky behavior like drinking and driving, sexual activity, or violence) and brain development problems (Research shows that brain development continues well into a person"s twenties. Alcohol can affect this development, and contribute to a range of problems. ) The impacts listed above are certainly no signs of responsibility. 2. Violence in bars With this point I was merely trying to bring out the fact that bars are not the safe places for new, inexperienced and young drinkers to drink. At the higher age of 21, most people would have matured more and would be less likely to be affected by the negative aspects or drinking and going to nightclubs or bars. 3. Responsibility Pro's point about military entrance age seems to be a special and isolated case. Military regulations are affected by many other factors such as the stability of the country and the need for soldiers in the country. For example, 12 year olds were drafted to fight in Germany around the end of WW2, because of the country's immense need of soldiers due to its impending doom. America needs soldiers and elite forces to fight in the war against terror, and so they have to start training soldiers early, when they are still at their physical peak. 4. I have already proved that drink driving fatalities are more common in places that have lower drinking ages by using Morocco and Japan as examples. 5. Due to critical brain development stage at early twenties, the MLDA should stay as it is so as to discourage those under 21 from drinking and harming their health. While my opponent says that this isn't working, it is merely a matter of law enforcement, and does not concern the law itself. 6. Pro here uses her own experience as evidence, which is not good proof as there is no way for me to determine whether or not it is the truth. Even so, evidence from such a narrow viewpoint cannot conclude a matter that involves a whole country or even countries. Concerning fake IDs, this again is a matter of law enforcement. Faking identities is a serious crime, and lowering the MLDA will do nothing to discourage it; it will only encourage those below 18 to get a fake ID as well, thus polluting younger minds. Upholding the law is the only way this can be stopped, or else the age range of those faking their identities will only shift down. Secondly, the MLDA has nothing to do with lack of social interaction. Social isolation is cause by many problems such as physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities. Psychologytoday. com cites "the longer work hours, the Internet, the ubiquitous iPod . . . and don't forget all the time spent sitting in traffic" as other causes. 7. When I mentioned drugs I was referring to all illegal drugs, be it cocaine, heroin or ecstasy. Here I will prove that drugs use is more common among youth in countries where the drinking age is lower. According to the Japanese health ministry in February, 0.4 percent of the Japanese population aged between 15 and 64 years old have tried stimulants at least once in their life. 1.2 percent of the Japanese population have tried marijuana once in their life. According to the UN, in the Philippines, adolescent drug use (under the tender age of 13) was at 11% (marijuana is 5.4%). Japan's MLDA is 20, while Philippines' is 18. References: . http://www.cdc.gov... . http://www.niaaa.nih.gov... . http://scriptamus.wordpress.com... . http://www.wpro.who.int... . http://education-portal.com... . http://www.mhlw.go.jp...