The Legal Drinking Age Is Not a Blanket of Protection

As a mother of two grown children living on their own, one teenager still living at home and as a quasi foster parent for a handful of teenagers without available parents, I am a viable spokesperson in favor of lowering the current legal drinking age. I can hear my younger self yelling, "Yay. Lower, lower" The legal drinking age debate will always continue although the government has established the MLDA at age 21 (www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005206 ). There will always be alcohol and youth will always be awaiting the day they are legally able to drink. If however, America lowered the legal drinking age, our youth would have a greater understanding and respect for alcohol use.

Chances are that most youth will drink before they are legally allowed to do so. Whether they sip the wine at the family Thanksgiving table or if they snatch a bottle from Sally's parents house while Sally's parents are at the movies, it's probably going to happen sometime and somewhere. Perhaps they will dislike drinking, maybe they'll succumb to pier pressure and continue to drink, or they could be wise and air on the side of responsibility out of self-respect, dislike of alcohol, or the fear factor.

Ultimately though, most youth will treat drinking according to what they were taught. Now that in and of its self is another issue. No parent was given the book "How to Raise Children" yet alone the pamphlet "How to Teach Your Youth to Drink Responsibly." No such writing exists in hard copy and if it did, the author would surely be brought to the Guillotine. I have always thought that love, honesty, and education where the best teachers. In all states to legally allow a child under-age to drink in the family home would educate them with adult supervision (drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002591) The other side to this is that America has already bypassed any ability for the youth to be educated about alcohol at home.

Children are dependent upon their tribe, their parents, to have taught them self respect, values and wisdom. Being open and honest with children goes much farther than teaching them to fear something they know nothing about. Parents need to not only lead by example but show their children data and statistics. American parents should legally be able to open a bottle of wine for their family dinner and not fear retribution by the law for handing a glass to their fourteen year old son.

The United States is one of eleven countries with the highest legal drinking age laws amongst 190 countries (drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004294). We have the highest death rate pertaining to drinking. Our governments interest in our youth is in their contribution as a consumer and as a tax payer. The legal drinking age law was last changed in 1984 and it has not been an issue on the governments agenda since then. Organizations still rally to either lower the age or raise the age of legal drinking but for over thirty years, the base number has been set. Regardless of the legal age, alcohol abuse poses a great risk to all uneducated youth. Parents are the best teachers so lets educate our children by what they see from us and by speaking openly about the use and effects of alcohol ( www.niaaa.nih.gov.).