Lower the Drinking Age

In our country, we are plagued with many young people who consume too much alcohol and subsequently operate a vehicle. Modern America has shaped our youth to be ignorant of alcohol until age 21. Without at least some experience, many youth are more liable to make mistakes when they do drink. Just as the "abstinence-only" sex education is doing nothing to solve the teen pregnancy problem, neither does the approach work for alcohol. Under-21 drunk driving has increased in the days since the early 80s, when the 21 age began to be enforced. Teenagers need to be taught how to drink responsibly by schools and parents need to assume that their children will NOT wait until 21 and adjust their nurturing accordingly. Not only does the actual drinking restriction cause a problem, but it also hurts nightlife businesses; if the admission age were 18 profits would go up considerably. In addition, there is a chance that the youth would become better behaved if those over 18 (or perhaps even 16) would have evening bars they could go to for entertainment. Other countries have far fewer alcohol-related problems even with youth under 21 drinking socially and dancing the night away in bars. Zero tolerance is not the answer; responsibility is.