Vote for president. Join the army. Buy a house. Get a tattoo. Buy a lottery ticket. Serve alcohol. These are all things that a person is able to do once they finally turn 18 in the United States.

One thing that a person is allowed to do in many other countries at 18, but not in the United States, is drink alcohol. If someone is allowed to fight in a war, serve alcohol to other people, and vote for the leader of their country, why are they not allowed to drink alcohol?

Many countries all over the world have a drinking age of 18 or lower and the United States is one of 11 countries to have a drinking age of 21, which is the highest minimum legal drinking age. There are concerns that because the drinking age in America is so high, people are more likely to abuse alcohol and start drinking before they are legally allowed to. Even though the drinking age in America is 21, 11 percent of all  alcohol consumed all across the country is consumed by people between the ages of 12 and 20. Over 90 percent of that alcohol that is being consumed in the form of binge drinks.

According to research published by the World Health Organization, roughly one in ten of all drinking occasions in southern European countries resulted in intoxication, while in America roughly half of all drinking occasions result in intoxication. Drinking in other countries is usually introduced by to teenagers by parents in a cultural context, but that is not the case in the United States. This could be a reason why people start drinking before they are allowed to and why intoxication and binge drinking are much more prominent in USA than in some other countries. There are many people who believe that if the drinking age was lowered to 18, the binge drinking and intoxication percentages will decrease. Many people also argue the fact that you are considered an adult in America at 18 and are able to do things like serve alcohol, join the army, and vote, so you should be able to drink alcohol as well.