Drinking age should be lower

By Editorial Board

It’s no secret-many college students pack their bags, head off to college, and at some point during their college career, find themselves at a kegger. Underage drinking is inevitable on college campuses across the country. But some college presidents have come together in support of a proposal to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 in the United States.

With the current legal drinking age of 21, college students who are underage, but have been drinking frequently, avoid seeking help for themselves or a fellow student. The fear of being arrested, suspended or expelled often keeps them from calling for help. By lowering the legal drinking age to 18, students involved in alcohol-related accidents will be much more likely to seek help, and ultimately avoid becoming one of the 1,700 who die from alcohol related accidents.

Despite being an urban campus, underage drinking is as much a problem at Columbia as it is on any other college campus across the country. According to the Chicago Tribune, research found that more than 40 percent of college students have reported some form of alcohol abuse. The Chicago Tribune also reported that each year, more than 500,000 full-time students attending four-year colleges suffer from alcohol related injuries. Of those 500,000 students, approximately 1,700 die from such accidents.

Providing students with the freedom to make the right choice and the ability to seek help if needed is not the only reason the drinking age should be lowered.

18-year-olds are considered adults in the eyes of the government. An 18-year-old is old enough to vote for the very politicians who are responsible for their future-including the age at which teenagers should be allowed to consume alcohol. An 18-year-old is old enough to purchase cigarettes and chewing tobacco. They can sit on a jury of their peers to decide verdicts in court cases. 18-year-olds are deemed old enough to enlist in the military and head off to fight, and possibly die, for their country. But they can’t toast farewell prior to their deployment with a beer in hand? It just doesn’t add up.

If our government deems 18-year-olds are old enough to die for this nation, they should most certainly be old enough to legally drink a beer before doing so.

Lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 is not going to miraculously curb the amount of alcohol that college students consume. However, it will help give students the opportunity to make responsible decisions about drinking.

And unless the government decides to change the so-called age of adulthood to 21, there is no reason why you should have to wait an extra four years to make a choice about having a drink.