Should Drinking Age Stay at 21?

June 1 -- With the citation of President Bush's twin 19-year-old daughters for misdemeanor alcohol violations in Texas, an old debate has resurfaced — is the drinking age set too high?

In a society where 18-year-olds are considered adults for most purposes and children as young as 13 are being punished as adults for their crimes, some consider keeping the legal consumption of alcohol out of range until age 21 as unfair.

When the Bush sisters, Jenna and Barbara, were cited at a Mexican restaurant in Austin, much of the public outcry focused less on a 19-year-old attempting to procure alcohol, and more on the president's daughter being insensitive to the demands of having a parent in public office.

But in most countries they'd have been perfectly within their rights to belly up to the bar.

Talkback radio was flooded with callers on the topic, and it has been one of the most popular stories for news Web sites carrying the story.

Underage drinking in the United States, it seems, is so widely prevalent, the act, or attempted act, comes as little surprise.

The most recent national study on youth risk behavior conducted by the CDCP (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) found that half of the high school students aged between 12 and 16 who participated in the survey had consumed alcohol in the 30 days prior tothe survey.

According to a recent Gallup survey, two-thirds of American college students said they drink alcohol and 54 percent of teenagers nationwide said they had no problem getting alcohol.

Vote, Marry, Just Don’t Sip?

Part of the problem with alcohol abuse by young people, some say, is that the legal drinking age in the United States is too high.

"When we raise the drinking age to 21, which incidentally is the highest in the world, it makes drinking more attractive to young people," says David J. Hanson, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

He cites research showing that prior to increasing the drinking age, alcohol consumption by college students increased as they moved toward graduation.