Firstly I believe that if the MLDA was to be lowered the influence that it would have on the adolescent culture of people would be severely negative. Young adults or teens if you will do not have the correct mentality for a decision regarding the consumption of alcohol. Thinking with the naïve mind that all teens have, a teenager perceives drinking as a mission of completion. It is always about how messed up you can get in a short period of time, or how much fun you can have not being responsible for yourself. It is not my fault, I was drunk. That is the alibi that most teens come up with as a just explanation for the unintelligent actions. According to the article written by Sean Flynn, “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered”, a student at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA concludes this, “We’d sit in our dorm rooms—18- and 19-year-olds—and try to drink as much as possible before going out. I think it goes on at every college. No one cares, even when they get caught. They think a speeding ticket is worse.”(Flynn). Adolescents do come to an age of accountability were they are personally responsible for themselves and their actions. I think that is a theory that is only true in certain circumstances and subjects. In the article written by Kirsten Scharnberg my conclusion and opinion is supported, although also contrasted with a comment made by John McCardell, a former Vermont College President who runs Choose Responsibility, a non-profit group that advocates alcohol education for young adults and favors lowering the drinking age to 18. . "Essentially what the current law says is that until you are 21 you lack the judgment and the maturity to drink," McCardell said. "Yet at the same time, we are a nation that says you can vote, you can sit on a jury, you can sign a legally binding contract, you can get married, you can put your life on the line in combat. It's an unbelievably condescending explanation."(Scharnberg). As a younger crowd is introduced to an “adult” behavior like drinking the outcome will suffer those who are not a part of the action. Life is about choice in general and the other factor that creates outcome is experience. How much life has a person under twenty-one experienced. Not much life at all has been experienced at such a young age.
Another argument that fits the bias of this paper is that lowering the MLDA would allow younger teens to drink; thus, with the privilege of an unknown mind altering substance the outcome would develop poor role modeling characteristics. Everyone has an individual that they look up to. Also whether people believe it or not there is always someone that is looking up to you. Being a mother since the age of fifteen has bestowed a tremendous amount of responsibility on me. Children are known to imitate those actions that are performed in front of them. Watching a young parent and or sibling drink would give a young child the jurisdiction to perform the same action as the opportunity came across. All of the elementary programs promoting the prohibition of drugs and alcohol would be in vane if such actions to lower the MLDA were successful.
