I do feel it's hypocritical for the USA to tell young men and women they're old enough to vote, and to die for our country as members of the armed forces, but that they're not old enough to drink alcohol.
I don't like tying driving ages into this matrix - I have had a license since I was 14 1/2 and (yes I know anecdotal evidence isn't scientific) - I've never been in a wreck. Ever. By the time I was 18 I had probably driven more miles than the average 25 year old on the East Coast - I grew up in a rural community and it was a 12 mile drive to get to the nearest town (and school) for me. If driving ages are raised, then people need to also include in that an exemption which allows young adults under 18 to drive if they are en route to sports practices, school, extra-curricular activities like their school play or etc., or to work. In much of this country, especially the rural areas, there is no public transportation infrastructure to step in if high school students can't drive themselves to things while their parents are at work or etc. Not everyone lives within walking or biking distance to their school.
I'm torn on lowering the drinking age. I worked for eight years in the Res Life Departments of three different universities - one of which was listed as a "Top Ten" party school. I'm not sure that lowering the drinking age will reduce binge drinking on college campuses. And there are very strong correlational links between raising the drinking age, and the reduction in drunk driving deaths etc. in the mid-80's. Obviously, kids will drink and drive even though they are under the drinking age (even if they don't have licenses, actually). But a reduction did occur at that time, one that continues to this day.
IME there are too many students who arrive at college thinking they're at Animal House. If drinking were legal for all 18 year old college students, I don't know that that would decrease that attitude. I worry that it would make it more likely that there would be disruptive, negative behaviors within the halls. I wonder how many of the college presidents who are asking for this law to be changed, want to do so simply so that they no longer have the task of monitoring student drinking (except with the rare less-than-18-year-old student); so that they can't be held as liable for binge drinking deaths in their halls and on their campuses, because "the student was old enough to drink, it's not our problem."
IME many of the students who went wild and crazy when they got to college, hadn't necessarily done so while in high school. College was their first opportunity to do so, because they had been closely monitored by their parents at home. Now, some of the students who were drinking heavily had been doing so in high school and/or junior high as well - but it sure seemed to me that the ones who were most 'at sea' were those who'd just begun their drinking process.
I suppose another argument about making the drinking age 18 again, is that the binge drinking will halt when it's not so 'cool' because it's not illegal. But with parents making sure that kids aren't drinking at home 'til they get to college, it's still going to be 'new.' The real issue is that students
A. Think they're supposed to party all the time at college, and
B. Have not learned to drink responsibility, through their own experiences OR through watching adults they respect, drinking responsibly.
I've been involved in hospital transports for more than one student who was hovering around .4 or higher for BAC. I just don't know that a lower drinking age is going to halt that behavior. I think societal changes are what help students/young adults learn how to enjoy alcohol without becoming dangerously drunk and endangering their lives or the lives of those around them (or seriously disrupting and negatively impacting their living communities).
And that's just at the college level .... plenty of young adults don't attend college, and are still dealing with the same pressures and issues regarding drinking. There is a lot of uncertainty - and peer issues - and I believe for many, alcohol is used a crutch to overcome social awkwardness (i.e. the classic drinking while trying to pick up a guy/girl). Young adults need to learn how to be themselves and relax without using alcohol as a crutch.
just my 2 cents
