- Question
- Should the drinking age be 18?
- Position1 of 4›
- Yes, the drinking age should be 18.
Legally, adulthood begins at the age of 18 in most parts of the world, and adults should be allowed to make their own decisions about drinking.
The argument
The age of majority is 18 in most places, which means that 18-year-olds are considered adults. Adults are full members of their societies, with all the rights that that entails, such as the right to vote, to serve in the military and perform other public duties, to enter into legal agreements, to marry, and to make many other important decisions. Adulthood also comes with obligations, and laws are applied more strictly to adults than to minors. If 18-year-olds have all these personal rights and responsibilities by virtue of their age, they should equally have the right to make personal decisions about drinking alcohol.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Critics reply that societies already set different age thresholds for different activities precisely because the risks differ, so reaching majority for voting or contracts does not entail an identical threshold for alcohol. They point to evidence linking a higher minimum drinking age to reduced traffic fatalities and to concerns about alcohol's effects on the still-developing adolescent brain, arguing that these health-and-safety considerations can justify treating drinking differently from other adult rights. On this view the "consistency" appeal is weaker than it looks, since the law routinely and defensibly varies the age of permission according to the specific harms involved.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Reaching the age of majority confers a bundle of rights, but the law already sets different ages for different activities based on their specific risks, so adulthood does not fix a single threshold. [Rejecting P2] Consistency across rights is not decisive when a particular activity carries distinct, evidence-based dangers; alcohol's traffic-safety and developmental risks can justify a different age.