The laws for alcohol consumption and use in the United States have changed several times over the past century. The United States has tried prohibition as well as laws requiring a specific age for legal alcohol consumption. None of these measures have had a significant impact on the purposes for which they were designed. For this reason, it would make sense to lower the legal age for alcohol consumption back to the age of eighteen. One of the major reasons it makes sense to lower the legal age for alcohol consumption is because children at the age of eighteen are considered adults. The responsibility given to eighteen year olds includes many opportunities to make decisions that will impact the rest of their lives. Registration for the draft is one of the requirements for all citizens at age eighteen. Even if a person is not actually drafted, the idea that an individual is responsible enough to go to war, carry a firearm, or launch nuclear weapons implies that an eighteen year old is making the same decisions as any other adult. Another right extended to eighteen year olds is the opportunity to vote. The idea that this right is given at the age of eighteen demonstrates trust in the ability to make decisions reserved for adults. Other examples of decisions that can be made at eighteen include smoking, body piercing, and getting tattoos. All of these choices deal with decisions that could impact the body for a lifetime. Smoking is also addictive in the same way as alcohol. Why is smoking a legal choice at eighteen, but not drinking alcohol? If children are trusted at the age of eighteen to go away to college and make their own decisions as adults, why are they not responsible enough to go to a bar or go to the liquor store? These so called adults are responsible to be trusted in serious decisions, but are not allowed the right to consume or purchase alcohol until the age of twenty-one.A second reason that the legal age for alcohol consu...
