Underage Drinking
Uploaded by JWA on Apr 02, 2002
Who is to judge whether or not someone underage is mature enough to handle the responsibility of consuming alcohol? The government has set twenty-one years of age as the legal drinking age. This is found to be a little odd by most teenagers. At the age of eighteen, young adults can sign their life away to the government and give their life for the country. Risking your life for this country is encouraged at eighteen, but you can’t drink at the same age in this country. How can this be?
Who has the right to judge the maturity of young people? There are some eighteen-year olds who are much more mature than some twenty-one year olds. This level of maturity is developed throughout life from what they have seen and experienced. Due to this, some may act more childish than others no matter what age group that they are in. Therefore many teenagers, as well as a few twenty-one year olds, are immature and can’t be trusted when given responsibility.
Lives become at risk the moment that someone takes the first drink. Due to the serious consequences of being drunk, how can teenagers who have so little experience in life expect to handle the responsibility of drinking? Many teenagers do not have the level of maturity that they need to make the decision about consuming alcohol.
Many adults look down on the underage people who consume alcoholic beverages. Is it their place to do so? If the age limit were to be lowered would this mean that the adults would be okay with young people drinking? Is this judgment being made because the government says it is wrong or is it due to the beliefs of that person’s religion or traits that they gained as they grew older? Underage drinking is against the law. When adults see underage people drinking they do not judge but just view it as people breaking the law.
Many religions believe differently about drinking. Some religions find it to be very unacceptable no matter what the age of the person is. Other religions find it to be acceptable for someone of any age to drink. There are many different cultures of people who all have different views of drinking.
Underage drinking is illegal and can have serious consequences. Many people have different views and feelings on teenagers drinking and it will always remain this way. No matter what is...