As we approach the end of the year, graduation parties will soon be in full swing. How many of them will have alcohol? Probably a good amount. How many students will drink? Again, probably a good amount, as about eighty percent of high school seniors admit to at least trying alcohol, according to George Mason University. It seems as though a combined effort of underage people wanting to drink more and adults just not caring if they do are leading to an increase in arguments against the current drinking age. One of the many arguments against the drinking age of twenty-one is that we are considered an adult at age eighteen. We can get married. We can move out of our parents’ house and live on our own. We can fight and die for our country. Does it make any sense that we are mature enough to decide our fate in a war but we are not mature enough to handle drinking alcohol? In Europe, drinking alcohol is a part of their customs and drinking is legal usually between then sixteen and eighteen, although a good number of European countries have no drinking age limit. People drink and get used to consuming alcohol at a younger age. But there is a difference between Europe and the United States. In Europe, people drink as part of their culture. Here, underage teenagers drink for the sole purpose of getting drunk and partying. That is why the counter-argument to anybody wanting to lower the drinking age is: here, some people just aren’t mature enough to handle the decisions that come with drinking. Drinking and driving is a big issue. In Europe, a person learns how their body handles alcohol and what not to do when intoxicated. While they do not start driving until they are eighteen, because they drink first, European teens know what not to do while drinking. Here, we grow up not being permitted to drink, so once we get the chance, some people cannot control themselves. Drinking is a big responsibility, so people are very divided. Reasons for the division? There are roughly 25,000 deaths per year that are related to alcohol. That’s 71 deaths everyday because of drunk driving. The more people we legally allow to drink, the more accidents. Also, if we keep it illegal, harsher punishments will be dealt to those underage, hopefully sending a message to other underage drinkers. The issue still remains: do people deserve to have the option to drink at the same age when assumed adulthood is reached, or is it generally in the best interest of everybody to wait an additional three years? Because we all have our own opinions, it was very hard for us to all agree on the appropriate course of action. While some of us think that the age should be lowered, others feel as though it should stay the same. This supported one general consensus: until everyone rallies behind one idea, things won’t change. Drinking is against the law if you are under the age of twenty-one and unless the people as a whole believe in a firm standpoint that that age is unreasonable, twenty-one will stay the legal age.