(October 4, 2004) — “Don’t drink and drive, you’ll spill it.” This is becoming a popular saying in high schools, even though the current legal drinking age is 21. Perhaps the saying is merely an extension of the younger generation’s desire: to lower the drinking age. Many believe that the age limit of drinking should be lowered to 18 years of age. However, people should remember some major consequences that will occur if the drinking age is lowered, no matter the validity of the arguments used for it. One of the main arguments for lowering the drinking limit is that “if you are old enough to die for your country, then you are old enough to drink.” Well sure, you are old enough to die, but are you sure you want to complicate your life by drinking? All Health-class lecturing aside, you may be old enough to die for your country, but you may not be old enough to have the proper amount of sense needed to handle alcohol. A nother argument for lowering the drinking age is that “people drink because they’re told not to.” Some people, however, refrain from drinking because they are afraid of the consequences. Also, no matter how low the drinking age is pushed, people will clamor for it to be even lower. Lowering the age limit now will only quiet people for a few years, and then the argument will be “if you’re old enough to drive, you’re old enough to drink.” The drinking age affects 18-year-olds the most. Regardless of the fact that at 18 you are a legal adult, many people are still partially ruled by the whims of their parents. Drinking at an age when most people are starting their first, highly expensive year of college will tax resources even further. While you’re spending thousands of dollars on books alone, you’ll also be supplying an inevitably steadily growing drinking habit. Drinking won’t just affect the drinker, but everyone around them. It is clinically proven that inhibitions go out the window once drinking commences, and drunk, party-throwing teenagers in the neighborhood will inevitably disturb others as well. Also, at 18 many people are still in high school, where the distractions of drinking would affect the performance of the students, inevitably harming the students’ chances of getting into college. Although 18 may seem like an age where people are highly mature, a teenager may not quite understand the limits may be. If the alcohol is available to them, they may even start drinking more often. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in a family of five, there is a 200% chance of a drunken-driving accident. Over half of that percentage is the domain of 15-25 year-olds, with the highest concentration at 18. The age of 18 is hardly an appropriate time to start drinking. What with the pressures of the usual new independence, people might be more tempted to start drinking, since “hey, it’s legal anyway.”