As a 20-year-old, I can tell you that there is nothing worse than going to a bar to watch my over-21 friends drink. While they have fun, I sit there wishing I had a happy-hour martini in my hand instead of thinking how stupid this law is.

Once you turn 18, they tell you at school, at home and at work to remember that you are now a legal adult. You are responsible for what you do, not only to others, but to yourself. So if 18 is old enough to poison your body with nicotine and get a license for “medical” marijuana, why aren’t you allowed to make your own decisions about alcohol consumption?

Just because 18-20 year olds aren’t “allowed” to drink doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. There are many more unregulated, unsupervised parties going on in these age groups than with people over 21, proving how ineffective this law is. If these parties were regulated they would be safer, not only for the people themselves, but for others around them.

If we want teenagers to behave responsibly, we have to treat them like responsible adults.

Underage drinkers in the United States will agree that the drinking age should be lowered to at least 18. Young people who can’t have something will always complain about not having it. I don’t know when the 21 came about for being the age to legally start drinking, but it’s a lot better than 18.

The fact that teens are compelled to drink at such a young age really calls attention to the questionable social practices in America. When our youth can’t go to social functions without the aid of alcohol it only sets them up for problems later in life. If age has anything to do with the ability to make decisions, then adding alcohol to the equation for underage drinkers only increases the chances of poor decisions exponentially.

In other countries the drinking age is sometimes lower than 21, and in all my experiences with people from those countries they crave alcohol.

Being under 21, I see a lot of underage drinking. People get wasted at parties, don’t remember things or just do stupid things that they later regret. This is going to happen no matter what the legal drinking age is, but holding underage drinkers accountable for their actions usually is forgiven more easily than legal ones. They drink legally for good reasons, and one of the biggest is being more capable of making good decisions.