<p>I’m 17 and have drank minimal amounts in the past but basically don’t.</p>
<p>The big problem I have with the drinking age being so high is that lots of concerts (and any other events that happen in bars) become 21+ by proxy, which is stupid. I’m a big proponent of all shows being all-ages, but shutting them out to 3/4s of all college students is incredibly bad policy.</p>
<p>Also, there is that whole argument about “voting, joining the army, being tried as an adult, even buying cigarettes at 18 but no booze until 21,” which, except for the fact that the human body doesn’t have the full capacity to process alcohol until around age 22, holds water (although when you think about it, you’re never really biologically ready to go to war!).</p>
<p>My parents were both legal to drink at 18 and drank a fair bit both before and after they hit 18; on the social side of things, my dad’s fondest college memories were from either playing concerts or eating burgers and drinking Guinness at the bar across from Trinity in Hartford. My brother drank infrequently before he hit 21 (although he had a fake ID, I think that was to get into shows) and probably an average amount after that, saying that it’s a lot more fun when it’s legal.</p>
<p>We read South Dakota v. Dole (the Supreme Court case that authorized the drinking age being nationalized) in my class on constitutional law and the reasoning for authorizing it was pretty sleazy and political–you can look up the history yourself if you want.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t matter a whole lot if it were JUST the drinking age changing in a vacuum and it had no other consequences, but it DOES have consequences. Whether the binge-drinking argument is true or not is up to a whole lot of interpretation, and drinking patterns vary so widely from person to person that it would be hard to get good information on that.</p>
<p>I think, especially in our time of recession, we should try anything that might help the economy–more people legal = more alcohol sales = more money from taxes. It also helps the nightlife industry and the music industry.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I like (most of) Canada’s policy–the drinking age is 19. It shuts out high-schoolers from bars, and although I’m in high school, I know nobody wants a bunch of high school seniors going to the bar after school. It does shut out college freshmen, but they’ll find their ways to get boozed up for that one year (and that’s not even a big concern, in the grand scheme of things), and, failing that, they’ll learn that alcohol is not necessary to a fulfilling adulthood. Because it’s really, really not.</p>