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Should the drinking age be 18?
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Younger people are too immature to drink

There are too many risks associated with drinking alcohol to trust young adults to drink responsibly. A higher minimum age is consistent with standards for other weighty responsibilities.

The Argument

Drinking responsibly and making responsible decisions even while intoxicated require a greater degree of maturity than most young adults possess. Statistics show that young adults have higher than average rates of driving accidents, risky sexual activity, substance abuse, and many other harmful behaviors. Several legal rights other than drinking are also restricted to higher ages based on the the potential dangers. In some jurisdictions, these restricted rights include owning firearms, holding certain public offices, adopting children, and other mature responsibilities. Remaining consistent with such restrictions, the dangers posed by immature behavior under the influence of alcohol justify a higher drinking age.

Counter arguments

Proponents

Premises

[P1] Younger people possess less maturity and cannot be trusted to be able to legally drink responsibly. [P2] The age at which it is legal to drink should reflect this.

Rejecting the premises

References

This page was last edited on Wednesday, 7 Oct 2020 at 07:25 UTC

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