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Drinking Age Should Be 18 Essay

660 Words3 Pages

18 And Alcohol
Across the world, there are several different ages that allow you privileges that are labeled as taboo in others; to drive, smoke, and drink of all others. The consumption of alcoholic beverages is a highly controversial topic, which isn’t allowed until the peak age of 21 in the United States-why though? It should not be so restricting as to make you wait until that age 21; instead it should be lowered BACK to 18. In making the legal drinking age 21, it brings up more dangerous situations for those underage since it is illegal; even though 18 is the legal age of an adult.
In 1984, The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Act was established; changing the way alcohol is held today for those younger than the age 21. The whole purpose of the act was to reduce the number of fatalities by those under the age of 21. While it is indeed setting a restriction and trying to prevent this, it became a double-edged sword. As told by Henry Wechsler and Toben Nelson, they state that since drinking isn’t allowed till …show more content…

Should We Raise The Age of Legal Drinking? by Jasper Gerud stated that, “By raising the age threshold it is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now. Instead they might come to see it as it should be: forbidden. Anyone who has come up against teenage psychology must admit that banning things can make them more attractive. No measure will stamp out youthful drinking” (35). It is true that the age limit does lower the crime rates, drinking accidents, and deaths, but the fact of it all is that it still happens. Instead of keeping the age limit to 21, awareness should be implemented; to guide the youth and give them the ways to drink responsibly. Making younger people wait till 21 is not doing anything but prolonging the inevitable

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For quite some time now, there has been numerous concerns to whether or not the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to a younger age such as 18 or 16. The minimum drinking age law in the United States has been established for over 20 years and is still gaining both supporters and detractors. Surprisingly, the United States has set the highest drinking age of 21 years old through the use of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, sharing that title with Indonesia, Mongolia and Palau. However, the majority of the world sets the minimum drinking age at 17 or younger. In our society today, young teenagers in high school and incoming college students are drinking illegally without any supervision of responsible adults.

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For decades, people have agreed that alcohol should not be offered to young adults, but recently some disagree. Across the United States people have brought up the discussion on whether or not to lower the drinking age to 18. The drinking age in the United States should not be lowered to 18 years old. The freedom of being able to drink as an official adult at the age of 18 sounds desirable, but is it really worth anyone's life? Drunk driving is a huge problem in the United States and has been around for years.

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