I have an idea...
So the drinking age should be 18. I've decided. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol or anything but if you're considered an adult and capable of making your own decisions at 18, wouldn't it make sense to also be considered responsible enough to make your own decisions regarding drinking? There's the old argument of "if he's old enough to fight, he's old enough to vote". That worked for the voting age, so it should work for the drinking age. I've heard that the reason they keep it at 21 is because the number of alcohol-related car accidents has gone down for the 16-24 age group since the legal age was changed from 18 to 21 in some states. But I pretty much guarantee that if the drinking age was changed to 24, the number of accidents would go down even more. But no one is lobbying for the age to be raised. Since alcohol threatens public safety most when combined with driving, here's my idea:
When you turn 18, you get a different driver's license. It has some symbol or some other indication that you're 18 or older but still under 21. This means that you're old enough to legally drink alcohol, but with one restriction. If you're pulled over for DUI or DWI, just once, you can no longer drink until you reach the age of 21. Maybe the cop will punch a hole in your license or something to make it obvious that your privilege has been revoked. So you'd be on kind of a probational period between 18 and 21, but since being able to drink is probably something most people would rather have than not, you'd think the 18-21 year olds would refrain from drinking and driving in order to keep that privilege. Of course there would be people who would get away with it, but that happens now as it is. And in the event that an 18 year old didn't have a driver's license, well, I guess they would just be allowed to drink since they technically wouldn't be driving anyway, or else they'd face more serious consequences.
Well I think it's a good idea. I'm probably overlooking something, but whatever. It's not like congress reads live journal.
When you turn 18, you get a different driver's license. It has some symbol or some other indication that you're 18 or older but still under 21. This means that you're old enough to legally drink alcohol, but with one restriction. If you're pulled over for DUI or DWI, just once, you can no longer drink until you reach the age of 21. Maybe the cop will punch a hole in your license or something to make it obvious that your privilege has been revoked. So you'd be on kind of a probational period between 18 and 21, but since being able to drink is probably something most people would rather have than not, you'd think the 18-21 year olds would refrain from drinking and driving in order to keep that privilege. Of course there would be people who would get away with it, but that happens now as it is. And in the event that an 18 year old didn't have a driver's license, well, I guess they would just be allowed to drink since they technically wouldn't be driving anyway, or else they'd face more serious consequences.
Well I think it's a good idea. I'm probably overlooking something, but whatever. It's not like congress reads live journal.