Legal Drinking Age

There are various age restrictions on certain activities in the whole world. Here, I would like to concentrate on the legal alcohol consumption age. Some people argue that it should be changed, that people should be allowed to drink sooner and this, in fact, would reduce the rates of excessive and binge drinking among youngsters, especially in the USA, where the legal drinking age is 21. But would it really?
Age restrictions on the consumption of alcohol have been placed to protect children and youths from the exposure to alcohol, which may cause them health issues and endanger them further through the lack of control over one's body and reason - alcohol would make already unstable and undeveloped minds even more irrational and could drive them to 'stupid' actions.

I don't believe that there is an ideal solution to this issue, as long as alcohol is being marketed as a cool, desirable drink, without which a good party is almost impossible.

On the one hand, if younger people were allowed to drink at a younger age, alcohol would not be a 'forbidden fruit' anymore, and maybe would not be consumed irrationally, in secrecy.

On the other hand, people who are allowed to drink, also drink excessively, not just because they finally can, but because it is 'cool'.

Therefore, as long as alcohol is widely advertised and is the desirable product among people of all ages, the lowering of the age restriction would not change much. It could even make things worse: people who have almost reached the legal drinking age would now be younger and thus ever younger people would start drinking alcohol, because they 'almost can'.

I think that one way of reducing illegal drinking would be setting one age restriction valid in all countries, which would reduce the peer pressure from people who can drink legally on their younger friends. Also, some people travel to different countries, just because the drinking age is lower there and as a result they tend to binge.