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Drinking Age Pros And Cons

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There is a large debate throughout the country about what the legal drinking age for each state should be. Currently, every state in the United States has a legal drinking age of 21. This has not always been the case. Between 1970-1976, it was made legal for states to choose their own legal drinking age. 30 states lowered their drinking ages ranging from 18-21 but this law was ultimately overruled and the legal nationwide age became 21 with the enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984(18 interesting pro, 2015). Based off of this alone, it is evident that there are pros and cons as to if the age should be younger or kept at 21. There are many people throughout the country that feel like the age of 21 is too high to be the …show more content…

In the study “Minimum-Age Drinking Laws and Youth Suicide, 1970-1990”, the objective was to determine whether there was an association between the legal drinking age and suicide rates among youths aged 18 to 20 years of age. To answer this question, the study used a cross-sectional time-series on youth suicide and the minimum drinking age. 48 states were reviewed. Poisson regression was the method used to estimate the association between the suicide rates and drinking age. It is important to note that the states were looked at during the times of 1970-1990 because states were able to choose their legal drinking age as long as it was at least 18 years old. They looked at the youth suicide rates of states with a MLDA of 18-20 and compared it to the youth suicide rates in states with a MLDA of 21 years old. After looking at the results of the time series of the different states, the results showed a large association between the legal drinking age and youth suicide. Between 1970 and 1990, states with a legal drinking age of 18-20 experienced an 8% higher rate of youth suicide than the states with a legal drinking age of 21. Based off of these results, it was concluded that lowering the minimum drinking age would increase the youth suicide rate, with their estimate of 125 more per year. (Birkmayer, 1999). With this study, another con to lowering the drinking age is now …show more content…

In the article “Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain-Human Studies”, it was argued that heavy drinking has been proven to affect the neuropsychological performance of young people and has impaired the growth of certain areas in the brain. It has also been shown that adolescents who drink alcohol are at a higher risk for brain malfunctioning and blood flow in the brain to be hindered. In the article, Tapert argues 2 main points. The first being that the brain continues to develop until early adulthood and even physically healthy youth can be effected long term if heavy amounts of alcohol are consumed. Animal tests were done where young animals were exposed to alcohol and this interfered with the animal’s normal brain functioning later on in life. This is consistent with the thought that it will interfere with human’s normal brain functioning in the long run. Going off of this thought, her second point is brought up as young adulthood is a critical period of decisions regarding education, occupation, etc. and an impairment to cognitive functioning could largely effect a future decision. (Tapert,

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490 Words | 2 Pages

In the article “College Presidents Seek Debate on Drinking Age” the issue of lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 is strongly discussed by college presidents and various organizations and Universities. Even though both parties agree that alcohol abuse in colleges is an extensive problem in schools around the country, college organizations are debating with lawmakers to lower the drinking age. With the intention to reduce driving accidents and deaths due to alcohol abuse, the drinking age was elevated to 21, creating the rejection of many college students and administrators in the country. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would not have much impact in the attitude of young people since there is no much difference in maturity in 3 years. This statement is supported by a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower.

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603 Words | 3 Pages

However, “90% of drunk driving deaths in the United States were found in the over 21 age group” (Gruenewald). For this reason, drunk driving is not directly correlated with the drinking age. In addition, the percent of drunk driving deaths in the United States has reduced at a slower rate than European countries where they have their legal drinking age at eighteen. This suggest that if lowering the drinking age was a success in Europe, it may also be effective here in the United States to diminish the amount of drunk driving deaths. This is because people that become injured due to alcohol or alcohol poisoning are afraid to report their injuries to the hospital or authorities out of fear of illegal consequences for underage drinking.

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1204 Words | 5 Pages

In 1999, New Zealand lowered its purchase age from 20 to 18. Not only did drunk driving crashes increase, but youth started to drink earlier, binge drinking escalated, and in the 12 months following the decrease in legal drinking age, there was a 50 percent increase in intoxicated 18- and 19-year-old patients at the Auckland Hospital emergency room. (Kyrpi, Kypros, et al.). Once again this shows how the immaturity of 18 year teenagers can cause problems if allowed to buy and drink alcohol. After reviewing many pages of data on the subject of lowering the MLDA to 18 from 21, it’s seems to me that there would be many negative consequences that would come from changing this law, especially if the immaturity level of 18-20 is taken into consideration.

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738 Words | 3 Pages

One main point that is argued is that younger brains are more susceptible to alcohol consumption and by lowering the drinking age, it would be approving the damage that alcohol causes in the developing brain. Emotional development, organization, and planning are all affected by alcohol consumption. Though it’s true that kids will still likely drink, that doesn’t mean society needs to approve of that decision. Another argument that is used is that more people drinking could create more unsafe environments. When people have too much alcohol, their decision-making skills are extensively lowered.

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397 Words | 2 Pages

The number one most involved factor in suicide cases is alcohol. Alcohol causes people to act on impulse and can cause a person to become depressed (Quitalcohol.com). Accidental suicide, suicide by overdose and alcohol poisoning, also falls in the category of suicide and causes an estimated 5,000 deaths of underage people each year (thecoolspot.gov). So, why do kids start drinking and what is the effect of drinking on youth suicide statistics?

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864 Words | 4 Pages

The debate of the raising the drinking age to 21 goes on, and more evidence has been found to raise the drinking age including, - 1000 lives a year are saved because of drinking age being raised. According to Choose Responsibility, " twice as many 21-year-olds

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1834 Words | 8 Pages

It can cause depression and he or she can develop criminal behavior which can lead to death. It has been shown that when the drinking age is lowered teens increase drinking. When Arizona lowered their age to nineteen, teenage drinking increased by thirty-five percent. Car accidents have been known to come from alcohol and research has proven that with the age being twenty-one, suicides, DUIS, and crime rate have decreased

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769 Words | 4 Pages

Alcohol abuse and alcoholism seems like an issue that keeps getting increasingly worse each year in the United States. According to USA Today and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both say that approximately 6 people die from alcohol poisoning, caused from binge drinking, each day, which amounts to roughly 2,200 people each year. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that “In 2013 an estimated 697,000 adolescents ages 12–17 (2.8 percent of this age group) had an [alcohol use disorder]” (“Alcohol Facts”). Something has to stop and something has to change from preventing this more because 6 people dying each day from binge drinking alone is a lot, not to mention that 12-17 year olds are having alcohol problems at such a young age. Lowering the drinking age will enforce this act even more, promoting more drinking in fact.

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1070 Words | 5 Pages

Lowering the drinking age: risky or safe? When teenagers turn 18, they are told that they are adults and are sent into the world. They go to college, get a job, marry or join the military. They do grown-up things like vote, pay taxes and become parents, but they can 't go to the bar for a beer.

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827 Words | 4 Pages

People will oppose to this law, but at the age of 18 an adolescent's brain is not fully developed yet. Underage drinking is a common action in today’s society. What kids do not know is the effect that underage drinking has on their brain. Since the brain is not fully developed at the age of 18, drinking

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1693 Words | 7 Pages

In the United States, turning 18 is a huge step for people as it marks individuals entering the adult world. At that age they are considered an adult in society. Open to more liberties, these young adults can drive, vote, join the military, and die for their country; however, they cannot possess or purchase alcohol. The current minimum legal drinking age, also known as MLDA, in America is 21. Numerous debates still occur today about the minimum drinking age.

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1387 Words | 6 Pages

Over the years, the legal drinking age in the United States has been heavily debated. Some argue that the legal age to drink should be 18 or 19 because people at that age are recognized as adults; others argue that the drinking age should be 21 because people who are able to drink should be more mature and have their lives better planned out. Although people are legally adults at 18, they are not yet mature adults; in fact, according to NRP, “emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don’t reach full maturity until the age 25” (“Brain”). Before earning the right to legally drink, people should allow their bodies to fully develop and gain a better knowledge of how to organize their lives. The drinking age should remain

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903 Words | 4 Pages

In fact, the law may increase the amount of eighteen to twenty year olds who do drink. It has been shown that, especially in college-age students, there is a tendency to not do what they are told, on the contrary, they will do the exact opposite. The problem with the drinking age being twenty-one is that some students drink purely out of defiance). The number of fatalities is down in all age groups, not just teenagers, and cars driven now are much safer than the cars that were being driven in the early 1980’s, and teenagers are much safer drivers, which can be attributed to the decreased amount of fatalities. Also, in other countries that have lower drinking ages, the number of fatalities has

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950 Words | 4 Pages

Today in the United States about 4,358 people under the age of 21 years old die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and even drowning. More than 190,000 people under the age of 21 visited an emergency room for alcohol related reasons in 2008 alone. Alcohol related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and non-fatally injure someone every two minutes. That’s a lot of people gone because they wanted to go out and party and not think about the consequences ahead. In this essay I’m gonna give you information to why Underage Drinking is very very bad for you.

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1300 Words | 6 Pages

“ [The drinking age] is unfavorable because it forces youth to consume alcohol in unsupervised places that are risky and consumption may be abused.” The idea is, if the drinking age is lowered, youth will be able to drink in open, public places that can be supervised by others. By being public, it would decrease the risky behavior seen with alcohol in private, unsupervised settings. Pomata also asserts, “The age restriction inspires undesirable activities just as the National Prohibition Act did.” Some undesirable activities that are associated with underage drinking include the making and distributing of fake ID’s.

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