Drinking Age--Up or Down?

For the purpose of this blogging session, I will be following the initiatives to change the drinking age. I’m going to be looking into bills and proposals that are attempting to lower the drinking age, those that are attempting to raise the drinking age, and others that pertain to alcohol consumption in the state of Texas or even federally. I’ll be following several issues, because alcohol-related bills often get denied.

            I’m following this issue because alcoholism rates are very high in our country and I’m researching to find out why. I’m observing the things we do differently than other countries with lower rates and trying to uncover why we have such poor statistics related to alcohol. After research, I discovered that Texas is about in the middle of all the states in terms of alcohol consumption. Would lowering our drinking age reduce or increase overall consumption? Would raising the drinking age reduce or increase overall consumption? Which would promote healthier relationships with alcohol, and reduce alcoholism? These are all questions I will be asking throughout this semester as I follow various bills.

-Hannah Teague