Minimum Age

4 Pages 1078 Words

European teens and college students have an opportunity to drink more often and at an earlier age and therefore better manage their
drinking habits. In the United States, teens and college students have much less of an opportunity to drink, so when they do they tend to
over-drink and not take proper responsibility for their actions while intoxicated. In the United States in 1995 among drivers 16-20 in fatal
car crashes 12.7 percent had a blood alcohol content of 0.1 percent, according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States. This amount
is the legal limit among a group not even old enough to drink. Had United States children grown up with alcohol as they do in Europe it
would be less likely for them to abuse the privilege. The over -drinking of United States college students is also due to the lack of legal
incentive. College students in the United States know if and when they get caught the consequences are small, such as community service
or a warning.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), less than one third of parents with a student in 10th grade give their children a clear
message about alcohol. Imagine how that number dwindles as students enter college. If we as society continue to teach values there
would be little need for laws restricting or prohibiting alcohol. In 1919 Amendment 18 to the United States Constitution was passed
prohibiting alcohol consumption, sale and possession. This amendment simply created a black market for alcohol with no regulation. In a
sense prohibiting alcohol to teenagers and college students is doing the same thing, creating a black market for alcohol with no regulation.
The Amendment was repealed in 1933 because there was no use for it; alcohol was still being sold, consumed and possessed. If this way
of dealing with alcohol didn't work for adults in the early 1900s it surely isn't going to work for the younger generation growing up in the
world today. This is o...