“What’s the plan for tonight?”

 Looking at my friend on a Facetime call, I sigh, “I’m not sure. Did Teagan say we could go to his place?” 

“Yeah, we should just go. It’s not like we can drink anywhere else.”

“Alright. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”

I end the call and start looking for an outfit. Wishing I could dress up to go out to a restaurant or bar, I instead search for shorts and a tank top to go to Teagan’s house. Typical night for a kid in high school, heading to a friend's house to pretend like we’re 21. We’re 16. 

We can drive cars, own debit cards, work late night shifts, but we aren’t legally permitted a drop of alcohol in any setting. So we sneak around, hiding what many would call a simple pleasure. 

For us, it isn’t so simple. We step behind our parents' backs and hope they don’t hear the “clink, clink” of the glass hidden in our overnight bags. We gather in places adults can’t see and neighbors can’t hear. Pouring beer into red solo cups and cheap vodka down our throats, we never learn moderation. America’s 21-and-over alcohol law prohibits it. One sip and we break federal law. But that doesn’t stop us, just pushes us underground into unsafe situations. 

We are the kids in America. Victims of a binge drinking culture. The kids who scream “CHUG CHUG CHUG” only to puke minutes later. We are the kids who suffer from alcohol poisoning and endure the stomach pump. The kids who dial 911 when our friends have inhaled their own vomit and died by morning. The kids who are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or other sexual assault.

We grow up in a lethal lifestyle. By the time we’re 18 we can vote, marry, buy a firearm, and enlist in the army to serve our country. We gain an abundance of adult liberties, yet, we aren’t allowed to regulate our own appetites. The drinking age should align with privileges afforded to young adults. America should align with the one hundred and sixty other developed nations that allow drinking under the age of 21. There are more instances of alcohol misuse from our culture than in these countries where the legal drinking age is lower. Unsafe drinking activity would diminish by simply allowing teens to consume alcohol in regulated environments.

We should have the right to learn how to drink in moderation at a younger age. The drinking culture we are raised in completely lacks liability and control. We are thrown into an ocean without being taught how to swim. We enter dangerous environments without being taught how to control our consumption. This is the product of the law enforced in America: adolescents drowning in alcohol due to a lack of guidance. 

The repercussions for forcing us under the surface are permanent. 

At the peak of teenage years minds are fragile and impressionable. Alcohol can affect developing brains and bodies, especially if consumed in mass quantities. This is what kids at the age of sixteen are doing—binging not sipping. These habits can greatly shape learning and memory. Decision-making functions can become partly compromised because of the damage to the frontal cortex. The development of vital organs including the liver, kidneys and heart can be altered by binge drinking. The irreparable damages the government tries to evade become by-products of the 21-and-over drinking age. The law does not encourage teenagers to learn responsible drinking habits. The habits we end up learning create casualties across the United States. 

Sixteen-year-olds are allowed to get behind the steering wheel but they aren’t allowed to drink under regulations. Deaths rise like a tide every year because adolescents drive under the influence. 

We should be allowed to regulate responsibilities towards alcohol before gaining responsibility on the roads. If the legal drinking age were 16, we could learn moderation with alcohol under parental supervision and direction. If the legal driving age were 18, the rate of vehicle collisions for 16- to 17-year-olds under the influence would cease to exist. Parents wouldn’t need to worry about getting a phone call past midnight bringing heart-wrenching news. Other dangers associated with teenage binge drinking such as being a victim of sexual assault, transmitting diseases, long-term alcohol addiction, and death, would decline as well. The environments in which kids drink would be safer. The habits kids learn would be healthier. 

America needs accountability, not alcoholism. 

Changing the federal law by lowering the drinking age is necessary for teenagers at large to learn moderation. Whether drinking is legal or not, teens will possess alcohol. The law should be in favor of stability and control. No one should continue to be endangered by the 21-and-over drinking age.

Everyone deserves the liberty of learning personal responsibility with alcohol in settings that promote safety and well-being. America needs to extinguish the binge drinking culture that exists today. It’s time to join the rest of the world and end the risks associated with the current minimum legal drinking age. The citizens and children of the United States deserve a safer and more secure future.