Students in favor of lowering the legal drinking age won Monday night’s speech forum by a vote of 124 -100, arguing that if 18-year-olds can smoke, vote and go to war, they should be able to drink alcohol. Students and visitors gathered in the Student Union Ballroom to discuss the legal drinking age in the second speech forum of the fall semester. The topic of the forum: “Resolved, that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18.”

The pro side’s principal speaker, Stephen Whitney, mass communication sophomore from Houma, said that keeping the legal drinking age at 21 is causing underage drinkers to consume alcohol “in an uneducated and irresponsible way.”

The current legal drinking age strips 18 through 20-year-olds of a right that requires just as much maturity and responsibility as other rights given to adults ages 18 and older, such as joining the military and voting, Whitney said.

“Eighteen-year-olds can make life-changing decisions in other aspects of life,” Whitney said. “That’s saying we can trust 18-year-olds with a gun but not with a beer.”

Speaking for the con side, Robin Marcel, freshman from Morgan City, said the legal drinking age should remain 21 because some 18-year-olds, many still in high school, are not mature enough to make wise decisions while drinking.

“Just because you can vote doesn’t mean you can control yourself under the influence of alcohol,” Marcel said. “You could be that driver that kills that person or you could be the one who dies.”

After both principal speakers gave their five-minute arguments, audience members had the opportunity to give their opinions.

People on the pro side said schools and parents would be more likely to teach about alcohol consumption if the drinking age was lowered to 18 because drinking would be an issue more relevant to teenagers.

Others said drinking alcohol is not about age at all.

“This isn’t a fact of whether you’re 18 or 21. This is a fact of responsibility and teaching,” Damian Maddox, culinary sophomore from Thibodaux, said. “If you feel you are ready to drink, drink responsibly. If you get drunk, call a cab. It seems fine to me.”

Volunteers who spoke for the con side said lowering the drinking age is only going to cause more problems.

Others said teenagers like to push the envelope, which is why many young people start consuming alcohol before turning 21.

“If you lower it to 18, people are just going to start drinking earlier,” Ian Ballantyne, freshman from Slidell, said.

Ella Whitney, a mother of five from Houma, gave the closing statement for the pro side.

Whitney said that life is about choices and until a person makes the choice to drink responsibly, it does not matter how old he or she is.

She compared drinking to military service.

“Men and women have made a decision to serve,” Whitney said. “They should also be able to make the decision to drink.”

Ballantyne, who gave the closing statement for the con side, said age does matter in determining a person’s ability to drink responsibly.

“You’re telling me you can act as mature at 18 as you can at 21, when there is three years difference?” Ballantyne asked. “Not even close.