Should the Drinking Age be lowered to 18

"Its been proven that statistics given in your arguments are both miscued and unreliable which proves that there is no correlation between the raised MLDA and less fatalities and related issues." Your statement completely befuddles me if that is so true could you please state your sources and provide facts? Much of your argument is opinion based. you provide statistics for things I didn't even mention. Such as your statistic on on the suicide rate. They are saying it is a possibly due to drinking when the brain is not yet fully nor close to being done. Can you provide anything to say that isn't true? "To address the claims of injury and illness related the the MLDA "Lowering MLDA 21 would reduce the number of underage people who are hurt from alcohol-related injuries or accidents due to fear of legal consequences if they sought medical attention."" That is quite hard to believe since it is still illegal to drink and drive. So I am pretty sure an 18 year old would be even more likely to not come forward. also can you provide anything that might help that statement? you simply saying that is a pure suggestion and assumption. "It's obvious that the high MLDA of 21 encourages extreme behaviour in those aged 15-21 and treating it like the forbidden fruit of society is no way of solving issues that surround alcohol" Again you are making another assumption based off of teenagers who drink because it is illegal. Well the age group 15-17 still would consider it illegal and "forbidden fruit." Except now they have their 18 year old friend is a senior to get them more alcohol than they could imagine. I think we all can agree High schoolers are immature, irresponsible, and do stupid things. Now lets add the ability that once you become a senior and turn 18 you can now purchase (and distribute) if they want. Now lets look at a little scenario here. You are 18 you need money for gas, upcoming college fees, clothes and/or misc. items. Hmm now some freshmen through juniors want some alcohol and you think to yourself "here is an opportunity to make some money" so you charge a price for buying it for them. 1. Imagine how much money a 18 year old could make to selling to underage kids. 2. You say they do these things because it is the "forbidden fruit" now imagine the ability to now sell the "forbidden fruit" to younger kids. "the 21- to 24-year-old age group had the highest percentage of drivers in fatal crashes with blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of .08 or higher " 35 percent."(2) this proves that newly aged drinkers were the most responsible for fatal accidents involving alcohol." Now you are going to give it to them 3 years earlier you basically keep that same statistic but lower the age. that makes it no better than before so I find this completely pointless. Except I think we can all agree 21 year olds are a little more mature than 18 year olds. "Although the United States increased the MLDA to 21 in 1984, its rate of traffic accidents and fatalities in the 1980s decreased less than that of European countries whose legal drinking ages are lower than 21". Just because it did not decrease as much as countries who already had lower than 21 it still decreased greatly and save thousands of lives which I stated and provided a FACT for. "76% of bars have sold alcohol to obviously intoxicated patrons, and about half of drivers arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) or killed as alcohol-involved drivers in traffic crashes did their drinking at licensed establishments. Neighborhoods with higher densities of bars, nightclubs, and other alcohol-selling locations suffer more frequent assaults and other violent crimes.(1)" "A US district court ruled on Dec. 22, 1978 that MLDA 21 is "reasonably related to a state objective of reducing highway crashes," and that MLDA 21 withstands a constitutional challenge on three key legal issues: (1) drinking alcohol is not a "fundamental" right guaranteed by the Constitution, (2) age is not inherently a "suspect" criteria for discrimination (in contrast to race or ethnicity, for example) and (3) using the drinking age to prevent highway crashes has a "rational basis" in available scientific evidence.(1)" Newly-legal drinkers often purchase alcohol for their underage peers, creating a "trickle-down" effect. Surveys show that the most common source of alcohol among 18- to 20-year olds is their 21- to 24-year-old peers. ["Youth Access to Alcohol," Alcohol Epidemiology Program at the University of Minnesota (accessed Mar. 22, 2012)](1) "Every state sets its own age of majority that often corresponds with the age at which one can vote, join the military, serve in jury duty, sign contracts, marry, apply for loans, make decisions regarding medical treatments, and be prosecuted as an adult. Alabama (age 19), Mississippi (21), and Nebraska (age 19) are three states that have an "age of majority" above 18, although certain rights such as the right to vote remain at 18 in these states.(1)" "As you can see below, of 19 health concerns, alcohol is ranked #3, and is greater than unsafe water, high blood pressure, tobacco, obesity and illicit drugs (ranked #18). https://ncadd.org... Figure: Global percentages of DALYs1 attributed to 19 leading risk factors by income group. Source: Global Health Risks (2009) (2)" "Lowering the drinking age in some European countries to 16,17, or 18 is inappropriate to the U.S. standards, because American teens start to drive at a very young age ,and drive more often that Europeans counties, and teens are more likely to drink under the influence of alcohol.(3)" I believe these are enough facts for this round. Would you like to debunk or "prove" any of these wrong with actual facts besides your opinion and your lack of facts. I'm asking you to use facts to support or too disprove me and my statements. So far I have been offered nothing but opinion and statements which are not backed. (1)-http://drinkingage.procon.org... (2)-https://ncadd.org... (3)-http://www.teenink.com...