I am 16, live in North Carolina and I drink. Yes, now some of you reading this are alarmed... I drink, but I DO NOT get drunk. I was raised in a family where drinking wine or beer with dinner is acceptable. I believe that the drinking age SHOULD be lowered and I do think that it will help prevent deaths due to alcohal poisoning in the USA. Because I grew up with alcohal being a norm, it's not 'cool' to drink. I think my friends that go out and get drunk are stupid, and I loose respect for them everytime they do it. Also, I don't think they would if they were legally allowed to... no teen rebel wants to do something legal. So by alcohal loosing the 'cool' factor I think teen binge drinking would decrease dramatically.