Introduction
The UK minimum legal drinking age is a controversial topic, with some being content with it being 18, and others wanting it either lowered to 16 or increased to 21.
The current age restrictions regarding drinking:
The current legal age to drink stands at 18, meaning that you can be stopped, fined, or arrested by police if you’re under 18 and drinking alcohol in public.
If you’re under 18, it’s prohibited by the law:
- For someone to sell you alcohol
- For an adult to buy/attempt to buy alcohol on your behalf
- To buy/attempt to buy alcohol
- To drink alcohol in licensed premises (such as a pub or restaurant)
There is an exception to the last rule, however. If you are 16 or 17, you can drink beer, wine, or cider with a meal, so long as you are accompanied by an adult. You can only drink, not buy.
Additionally, there are laws concerning working in a bar if you’re under 18.
You can serve alcohol in a restaurant if you’re 16 or 17, so long as the license holder or bar manager has approved the sale. However, some areas restrict the selling of alcohol in sealed containers, such as cans or bottles.
So let’s discuss it. What should the UK government do? Should they lower, keep, or raise the minimum drinking age? Well, let’s dive in:
Let’s lower it down:
The law states someone aged 16 or 17, accompanied by an adult, can drink (but not buy) beer, wine, or cider with a meal at licensed premises. But it’s illegal for them to drink spirits in a pub anywhere in the UK, even with a meal.
A 16- or 17-year-old working in a licensed bar, restaurant, or shop can serve alcohol if the license holder or bar manager has approved the sale and it’s in line with any other restrictions set out in the license.
Essentially, at 16+, you are lawfully capable of dealing with alcohol, so why not widen this capability to be able to drink?
Erm, no, let’s keep it the same:
We can’t dismiss the health risks that come with drinking at 16, such as affecting the normal development of vital organs and functions like the brain, liver, bones, and hormones. There’s also a mental impact, including raising the risk of alcohol-related injuries, involvement in violence, suicidal thoughts and attempts, risky behavior, etc.
18 is the age you become an adult, so therefore you should have the right to make your own decisions about alcohol consumption. The current drinking age encourages responsible drinking habits and reduces the risk of underage teenagers binge drinking.
Despite claims otherwise, those aged 18–23 don’t have the highest proportion of casualties in drink-drive accidents (at 23%), as those aged 23–59 make up 63% of such incidents.
All increasing the drinking age will do is encourage illegal drinking: in the USA, despite the legal drinking age being 21, 18–20-year-olds are still found to drink.
Both are wrong. Let’s raise it:
In addition to it being medically irresponsible to allow 18–20-year-olds to drink, we’re creating dangerous situations by letting them into unsafe drinking environments. It’s simply irresponsible to allow a greater segment of the population to drink alcohol in bars and nightclubs.
People are more mature and responsible at 21 than at 18. Increasing the minimum legal drinking age encourages responsible drinking habits and reduces the risk of underage teenagers binge drinking.
Polls have confirmed that more than half of adults support raising the UK’s drinking age to 21 to reduce the burden on the NHS and society as a whole from ‘binge drinking.’
The Priory, a team of mental healthcare and addiction specialists, conducted a public survey asking adults their thoughts on the UK legal drinking age. They found 56% of adults think the drinking limit should be 21, and we should follow the US as an example (compared to the 34% who disagreed with this statement).
Additionally, they also found that among those surveyed who lived in London, support for raising the drinking age to 21 rose to 65%.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are benefits and risks to the current minimum legal drinking age policy. There are several reasons that support all three arguments and disregard them. So, what do you think? Should it be lowered, raised, or kept the same?
