A Commonplace

Legal drinking age is varying all over the world. According to the data I looked up online recently, I found that the range is between 18 and 21. Those teenagers, who are legal to consume alcohol or not depends on the specific law they have. It is widely accepted that it is committing a crime if the teenagers who are drinking or consuming alcohol under the legal age. Legal drinking age is a kind of law, which is passed and issued by the federal government. For one side, the law is aimed at preventing crimes of teenagers, which are caused by abusing alcohol. For the other side, misusing alcohol will cause serious health problems for teenagers. But, it can`t be guaranteed that it will 100% prevent the under-age teenagers from buying alcohol in different ways.

I don`t have a drinking problem in America because I`m old enough to drink. But I still have to deal with a related problem from my illegal drinking roommates or friends. Sometimes, it is difficult to refuse their request when they ask me to buy alcohol for their parties. The purpose is I have to maintain healthy relationships with them. I know I was committing crimes, but it is easy to avoid to be caught though. I was thinking if I was lucky enough, and I can bring them alcohol if I didn`t get caught by policemen. They are the only people who have the power to send me to a jail, but it is not always happen. The only way is those illegal drinkers don`t show up in a convenient store when I am buying alcohol, and I bring it home alone. There is no way to track where it goes, or whether the drinkers are legal or not.

As a matter of fact, fake IDs are existed in America. There are quite a number of my Native American friends have fake IDs with them when they intend to go to bars, and they use their real drivers` license when they drive on roads or in school. International students have no idea where to make fake IDs, probably, we are not eager to do that since we don`t want to have illegal records in this country. It is still amazing that I can barely tell the differences between those two. Everything is the same except the birthday date, which makes them drinking in bars legally at certain time. They seem don`t have much trouble with it when I hung out with them, the security of bars simply look up the date on the ID, and compare the picture with the ID holder in a bit. I guess people can always figure out ways to take advantages of law.

Compared with China, the law of drinking is not as integrity as in America. The latest law about restricting the drinking age was introduced in January, 2006. The consumption age and drinking age are both 18 years old. But I didn`t see abuse alcohol is a serious social issue in my country. Based on the consideration of alcohol is harmful for children`s growth and nervous system, my parents didn`t allow me to drink a bit when I was little. We don`t actually have the habit of drinking a lot, but it is still necessary to perfect the drinking law even if teenagers in China have better self-control than other countries.