The U.S. legal drinking age is one that stands apart from much of the world. Many countries, especially in Europe, have drinking ages much lower than 21. Some legal ages are as low as 16 for simple alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine. Many of these countries have much safer and more reliable drinking laws as well, mainly because those who drink have had more time to become more responsible with their consumption.

The main reason we’re stern about our laws is the idea that older people have more time to mature and ready themselves for the responsibilities of drinking. Welcome to our stubbornly run government. A group of people who are too afraid to change the way we live because they wish to remain with the absolute maximum power possible, as well as allowing everyone to live fairly as if not to upset those who never had the opportunities our generation has today. Changing the drinking age would be a prime example of that.

Leaders have highly opposed the ideas of changing the legal ages for drugs, and it does not seem to be anything that will be changing soon. Yet keeping the current legal age would only make problems substantially worse as we move forward in our generation of rebellious ideas.

For many countries with the lower legal ages, the reasoning behind the lower ages is that it would allow one to mature with the consumption of alcohol, therefore limiting the abuse after one leaves the protective household they grew up in. As it stands today, this is a beautiful solution to our problems of young adults and teens getting drunk and breaking the laws. In its best form, a drinking age law would allow teenagers to begin drinking at much earlier ages such as 18 or even 16. By doing this, it would allow consumers to spend time inheriting their parents’ knowledge about alcohol. It would also allow them to safely explore what they enjoy without the temptation of other persons of the same age around them influencing the irresponsible drinking.

Finally, and perhaps the biggest factor in the earlier drinking ages, this would allow a child to learn how to be responsible with their drinking while or even before they are learning to drive. Allowing one to experience the effects of alcohol while also learning the perils of the road changes how likely the person is to drink and drive in the future by dramatically lowering it.

Changing the drinking age could potentially solve many of our common problems of irresponsibility under the influence. All that stands in the way are those who make the decisions.