When I turned 18, I was allowed to join the military if I wanted to.
I received my driver’s license at 18 years old and was expected to commit to new responsibilities.
If I worked, I had to file for taxes. If I was arrested, I would be tried as an adult.
How is it considered fair that I can sacrifice my life for my country, carry a gun and be trained to kill, but I cannot have a beer?
Among the many things we are legally allowed to do at 18 years old, like buying cigarettes, drinking alcohol is not one of them.
An obvious explanation would be that the overconsumption of alcohol by minors has become a widespread epidemic.
On college campuses, in fraternity and sorority houses and even in high school, minors are finding ways to get their hands on the forbidden fruit behind closed doors.
Some teens indulge in alcohol as early as middle school now, and it operates as a gateway to alcohol abuse and other dangers.
The issue is not whether the law is being enforced; the issue is that underage drinking is happening anyway, and it is nearly impossible to pinpoint the individuals who are cheating the system.
Thus, the question posed by many has been whether or not to lower the drinking age.
In the early 1970s, the drinking age was lowered to 18, 19 or 20 years old in multiple states. During this time, scientists studied the number of vehicle crashes and realized that this number rose as soon as the drinking age was lowered.
Relying on this evidence, many argue that the same scenario would repeat itself if the drinking age was lowered again.
Advocates for lowering the drinking age argue that the problem is the secrecy and the urgency for minors to drink as much alcohol as they can before being caught by an adult.
This leads to minors drinking much more than their bodies can handle in a short amount of time.
The truth of the matter is that if it is forbidden, minors will be enticed to have it.
If we are being treated as adults in all other aspects of our lives, we should be given the rights that other adults have.
If the drinking age was lowered, parents would be able to pass drinking responsibility gradually to their kids in a safer environment. This would help more individuals to make better decisions when consuming alcohol.
Underage drinking has always been an unstoppable issue, and the current age limit has proved to be ineffective.
When individuals turn 21, it is more of a sigh of relief rather than excitement that they no longer have to drink behind closed doors.
Jovanna Madrigal is a sophomore journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
