Honorable judge, worthy opponents, and diligent timekeeper.
I am here in front of you today to debate against the concept of raising the legal drinking age to 25 years old.
The debate against this is quite simple.
Drinking is a right given to a citizen at age 21.
But a full three years earlier, an American can already be on a court jury, have the right to vote, can get married, and can even be sent off to war.
These rights are given to eighteen year olds, for the simple reason that they are already considered adults.
They are trusted by our government to be able to take care of themselves, their family, and even their country at 18. Yet, they are not trusted to drink responsibly.
If a person can help change the outcome of another persons court case, put his life in danger for his country, and elect the leader of that country – surely they can know when and how to have a “drink”. With a legal drinking age of 25 a citizen is able to get married at 18, yet cant legally have a celebratory drink of wine, or champagne at his wedding.

BY the year 1988, the drinking age in all states was increased to 21 years old in order to reduce irresponsible drinking, specifically in colleges across the country.
This year, a study done by Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, showed that, “among college-age males, binge drinking is unchanged from its levels of 1979; that among non-college women it has increased by 20 percent; and that among college women it has increased by 40 percent.”
From this we can conclude that raising the drinking age didn’t lead to more responsible drinking among college students as had been intended, it was actually counterproductive. Thus, further increasing the legal drinking age would serve no purpose.
Since 1984, when the legal age for drinking rose the rate of alcohol related traffic accidents have decreased. However, since then, the decrease has been slim and according to the New York Times, the main reason for the decrease is not because of the lack of drinking, but because of police enforcement.
Furthermore, a study was conducted at Arizona State University, showing no decrease in alcohol consumption since their state drinking age was raised.
Similarly, An examination of East Carolina University revealed that after the drinking age got changed to 21, only 6% intended to stop drinking, 70% planned to change their drinking location, 21% expected to use a false or borrowed identification to obtain alcohol and 22% intended to use other drugs ANYWAY. Thus, the only significant change resulting from the increase of the age of legal drinking, was the increase of illegal drinking. Furthermore,
In a study conducted by Dr. David J. Hanson, professor emeritus at new york state university, testing three thousand three hundred and seventy five students in fifty six colleges around the country, he concluded that after the change in the legal drinking age, significantly MORE students were drinking underage.
There is no reason to believe that this counter productivity will not occur again if the drinking age is raised another four years.