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I actually did a 10 minute persuasive in my speech class in the fall that focused on why the drinking age should be 19. Gutsy move in a Southern state school known for being conservative. I researched and researched and even polled my classmates as to their habits (anonymously, of course) so I could be as well informed as possible. The statistics given by some of the previous posts have been about 50% "good" and 50% "bad". Ok, for starters...yes, people who start drinking when they're in their early adolescent years do tend to have a higher rate of alcoholism than do people who wait. And there is another statistic running around saying that people who don't drink at all until they are of legal age have a smaller probability of being an alcoholic later on. I believe that both of those facts are true, if somewhat skewed, for a few reasons. 1...What on earth kind of parents are so negligent of their 11 and 12 year olds that their kids are binge drinking??? 2...How many people can honestly say that they took not a drink until the day they were 21? Not many, but some I'm sure, and they likely live in areas where alcohol isn't as prevalent. 3...There really are no statistics to determine the probability of people who start drinking between the ages of 15-20, which is presumably when most underage people start. So why is this left out? Because for the most part people who start in this age bracket tend to sow their wild oats quickly and then settle into more responsible drinking patterns. Underage drinking does and will happen. We tried Prohibition for all people back in the 20's. And it didn't work. Crime rates were obscene due to the black market nature of alcohol in this time. The 21 MLPA (min. legal purchase age) is another form of Prohibition that also does not work. If parents teach their children healthy attitudes toward alcohol, a lot of grief can be spared. But sometimes that doesn't happen. However, I don't believe it should be up to our justice system to legislate morality or take the place of the parents. People of legal drinking age should take care to demonstrate responsible habits to underage people. And no one regardless of age should ever tell anyone that being drunk is cool.
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