Oh, I DEFINITELY don't think it should increase. I don't see the problem with it being lowered to 18. One of two things needs to happen.
1) You don't become a legal adult until you're 21, or
2) The legal drinking age is 18
I say that because it just doesn't make any sense. I can be tried as an adult at 18, but I can't buy a beer?
When I was in Spain, I talked about this with my host family. They think it's hilarious how Americans get sloppy drunk and what not, and that we have such a problem with alcoholism and drunk drivers. They don't have as many problems with that stuff as we do, and they tend to think it's because of how we perceive alcohol. Because it's looked down upon and controlled so heavily, people tend to want it more. You always want what you can't have. And then you do it in excess. Over there, kids drink beer at school (High School). Vending machine in the cafeteria that sold beer. They smoke in the hallways where there are no classrooms. It's wild at first when you see it, but you get used to it after a day or so. They don't have crazy fights breaking out because kids are drunk, or anything like that. The kids don't even get drunk. They have their beer, then they go to class. That's that. Same with adults. They go out, they drink, they party, they go home. It's just totally different.
But because of that, I don't see the problem with lowering the drinking age. At least to 18. I think that the problems will cease (drunk driving, alcoholism, etc.) when we remove the negative stigma (is that the word I want?) from it.
This is a good topic, Soror. Lately I have been thinking a lot about the amount of control that the government has over stuff.
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