Should the Legal Drinking Age be increased to 21?

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Readers Question: Evaluate the case for raising the legal drinking age to 21. Will it be more effective than other methods for reducing the harmful effects of alcohol? 

There are several reasons to be concerned about the over-consumption of alcohol, especially amongst young people. In the UK, abuse of alcohol has contributed to several social, economic and health problems, including:

  • Alcohol-related accidents.
  • Health problems
  • Alcohol addiction is a major cause of family breakdown.
  • According to a report, “Health First: An evidence-based alcohol strategy for the UK”. “The personal, social and economic cost of alcohol has been estimated to be up to £55bn per year for England and £7.5bn for Scotland,”
  • Research carried out by Sheffield University for the government shows a 45p minimum price would reduce the consumption of alcohol by 4.3%, leading to 2,000 fewer deaths and 66,000 hospital admissions after 10 years. Researchers also claim the number of crimes would drop by 24,000 a year.

From an economic perspective, we say that alcohol is a demerit good.

  1. People may underestimate the personal costs of drinking alcohol to excess (especially amongst young people)
  2. There are external costs to society, e.g. costs of health care, costs of treating accidents, days lost from work. Therefore the social cost of alcohol is greater than the private cost.

These two factors give a justification for government intervention to deal with some issues related to alcohol.  Raising the legal drinking age could help reduce these personal and social costs because it is more difficult to purchase.

Arguments against raising the drinking age to 21

  • At 18, people can vote and are considered adults, so we should allow them to have a personal decision on whether to consume alcohol.
  • Alcohol in moderation isn’t necessarily harmful. Rather than a blanket ban, the government could focus on tackling binge drinking through making alcohol more expensive and tackling the drinking culture.
  • Drinking alcohol is so embedded in the culture, raising the legal age to 21, will make the majority of young people break the law.
  • It will encourage people to find ways to circumnavigate the law. Black market alcohol supplies, which may be harder to monitor.
  • Arguably, there are better ways to deal with problems of alcohol.

Will raising the drinking age to 21 be effective?

Raising the drinking age to 21 will reduce consumption amongst young people because it will be harder to buy alcohol. Also, young people are the most likely group to misuse alcohol; e.g. drinking to excess, which causes accidents, death and health problems. If people start drinking later in life, they may be more likely to drink in moderation and not get addicted at an early age.

However, it will still be possible for young people to drink at home. People will find ways to avoid the legislation e.g. asking older people to buy alcohol for them. Nevertheless, it will be more difficult. For example, a 16-year-old may not be able to get away with drinking in a pub any more. If the age is 18, it is much easier for a 16 or 17-year-old to get away with drinking alcohol.

This policy doesn’t address the underlying problem of why people want to drink to excess. For that education may be a better solution; education could help to explain the dangers of excess drinking and therefore encourage young people to drink moderation. However, previous education policies have not seemed to be very effective. Young people don’t want to hear lectures from the government about the dangers of alcohol.

Other Solutions

Higher taxes increase the cost of alcohol and may have a significant effect in reducing demand amongst young people, who have lower disposable incomes.  If demand is reduced by say 20% this may reduce many of the problems of over-consumption. This policy also raises revenue for the government. But, on the other hand, it may increase the incentive to import low duty alcohol from abroad. Demand for alcohol may also be inelastic and not effective in stopping consumption.

See also:

In practice, there is very little that the government can do to change social and individual attitudes to alcohol, which is the root cause of most alcohol abuse.

In the US the legal drinking age is 21. They still have many alcohol-related problems, but, it is significantly more difficult for young people to regularly drink alcohol.

What do you think – should alcohol be illegal for under 21s?

91 thoughts on “Should the Legal Drinking Age be increased to 21?”

  2. pushing the age to 21 has nothing to do with underage drinking, The Goverment should be spending more time and money into tacking underage drinking, also it wont stop underage drinking, also it wont stop under age drinking.

    so many teenagers from 14 – 17 are throwing away there lives all because they think its cool there getting wasted, and also because they havent been informed at a younger age before they drink of the consequensas. How ever changing the legal drinking age to 21 has nothing to do with underage drinking, it could just make criminals o 18-20 year olds, what impact does the “legal” drinking age have on the behaviour of 14 – 17 year old, why would you want to expand the behaviour to 18, 19 and 20 year olds.

    The goverment should send more time and money on the issue to tackel and overcome underage drinking such as more in-school speakers to show and inform us the effects o drinking at a young age, more addvertisment in the street, in school, at clubs, in doctors and in alcohol stores of graphic pictures.

    Changing the legal age to 21 will not stop underage drink it will just extend underage drinking to adults of 18, 19 and 20 years of age. 50% of alcohol consumed by underage drinkers was supplied by there parents.

  3. I dont think raising the legal drinking age to 21 would work. Its 18 right now and we have younger teenagers going out and getting drunk illegally. So if its raised to 21 we would just have 18, 19 and 20 year olds getting drunk illegally. It doesnt matter about the age. Its the attitude of the individual and peer pressure. Also why is it that we foucs on teenagers being the problem when talking about alcohol consumption problems? I have seen programmes on binge drinking and there is someone going out for a night with the police observing what they do and watching the binge drinkers falling about in the street and it is always adults in their 20s and 30s they see. We need to stop focusing on teeagers being the problem with alcohol consumption and think more about adults being a bad influence on teenagers. Also there is no point trying to solve this problem through education. If children are exposed to alcohol at home and alot of children are, what they learn at school wont make a difference. We are more likely to mimic our parents than listen to someone telling us the dangers of excess alcohol consumption.

  4. i think changing the age of drinking from 18 to 21 won’t work as teenagers today stil drink no matter what. Teenagers who are underage wont stop drinking because of the raise.
    there is no point

  6. im 14 and i drink at the weekend. I agree with what most people have said. putting the age up to 21 wont stop me or any other teenagers drinkin. Yes it may be harder for us to buy it but we’ll just do wot we do now – stand on street corners and ask random people, or parents or older brothers or sisters and other family members. Its just gunna be a waste of time and money. I smoke to and puttin the age up to 18 didnt make a slight bit of difference as i still smoke and everyone else i know smokes to. i also dont agree with the fact the goverment n most other adults seem to think they know what goes through teens minds and know why we drink/smoke/take drugs/break the law etc. Instead making up wierd suggestions themselves why cant they ask us – seein as were the people who r doing it.

    • you really need to think about it because you are going to regret drinking a lot one day/night when you get so drunk that you get in a fight and kill yourself. if you dont kill yourself there is a 99% chance you will get brain damage. just think about how sad your family would be when they find out in the middle of the night that their family member has been killed.

  7. I am 18 (legal to drink 🙂 ), I don’t think increasing the drinking age to 21 will be a positive because some young people (e.g. 14-16 year olds) may think it is more big/hardcore to drink and there will be more of an incentive for them to try it. It will increase the underage drinking levels in the UK, and it will be taking away one of the things that an adult can do. Personally, I think 16 to 17 year olds should be able to drink beer (not cider) in pubs because they can be refused service when they have had too much and it is a less of a problem people (of all ages) drinking on the streets than indoors. The UK is a good country to live in, but it won’t be if we are not treated like adults in a pub until we are 21. The UK goverment should leave the laws just how they are, everytime they change they are usually not for the best. If the alcohol tax is put up, it would be OK for families with good income, but not for thw lower income familes. If the government want to deter under 18s from pubs/clubs, don’t raise the drinking age because that would be unfair on 18-20 year olds, instead I recon pubs/clubs/shops should have a biometric fingerprint ID system (so people can’t share there ID’s with there older friends).

  8. Im 16 at the moment and I drink and smoke . By putting up the legal age for drinking , it wouldn`t make that much of a difference , teens have their ways of getting grog or smokes , although it would be alot harder for us to get into clubs or pubs , but otherwise they should leave the legal age at 18 .

  10. To drink and smoke is not good for the body.
    Every one who drink and smoke should stop cause is not good.
    thank from junior to any one who smoke and drink.

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