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Lower the U.S. Legal Drinking Age to 18

The current United States legal drinking age is 21. Many United States citizens disagree with this age. Many believe that the age to legally be able topurchase, consume or possess alcohol should be 18. A United States Citizen is allowed to vote when they are 18 years of age. 18 year old males are forced to join the Selective Service, for possibledrafting. This means that 18-year old males can go to war. At age 18, a citizen is also inclined to jury duty. So, an 18-year old is given the responsibilities of voting, being selected for jury duty, andpossibly being drafted for war. If an 18-year old citizen is to be given these responsibilities, why is the legal drinking age 21? Does the U.S. Government not trust those of us under 21? They trust uswith their votes, yet they cannot treat us like full adults for another 3 years!

There have been many Colleges and Universities that disagree with the legal drinking age. These schools believethat by outlawing alcohol consumption from those students under 21 is only making the problem worse. If the drinking age were changed to 18, Colleges would be able to regulate alcohol use, so studentswould not become overly intoxicated. This would probably cut down on the number of College campus alcohol-related deaths, since Campus officials would be able to better monitor alcohol use.

Here isan excerpt from an article on Teenage drinking from Time Magazine at www.Time.com, written by JEFFREY KLUGER:
Often it is college administrators who have to deal directly with the most recklessimbibing. In studies through the 1990s by the Harvard School of Public Health, the percentage of college students who reported binge drinking within the previous two weeks remained steady at 44\%.(Binging was defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four for girls.) In an age in which campus officials are increasingly seen as proxy parents, this is worrying to them. Legal liability is of...