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Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

1098 Words5 Pages

Drinking Age In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed that officially raised the drinking age to 21 years old from being 18 years old. Ever since 1984, lowering the drinking age has been a controversial subject throughout American history. Personally, I believe that the United States should lower the legal drinking age to 18 years old again. One of the main reasons why the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in the first place was because of drinking and driving. The Alcohol Policies Project says that the Arizona Department of Public Safety found that fatal accidents increased over 25% while traffic accidents increased more than 35% after the state MLPA was lowered from 21 to 18 (CSPI). Also, according to MADD more than 25,000 lives have been saved in the U.S. thanks to the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MADD). Since the drinking age changed to 21, car …show more content…

A way to resolve this issue would to be to actually lower the drinking age. This is because I believe if the legal drinking age was lowered to 18 then teenagers would learn their alcohol limit at a younger age. By lowering the drinking age, we are teaching teens their limit and how to control themselves versus them figuring out the hard way further on in life. “Teaching people to drink responsibly before they turn 21 would enormously enhance public health. Now, high school and college kids view dangerous binge drinking as a rite of passage,” says Gabrielle Glaser (ProCon). Also, ProCon says prohibiting this age group from drinking in bars, restaurants, and other licensed locations causes them to drink in unsupervised places such as fraternity houses or house parties where they are prone to binge drink and participate in other unsafe behaviors (ProCon). By allowing 18-year-olds to drink legally in supervised places this will give both the teens and parents comfort and potentially diminish binge

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Many states have been lowering and raising their drinking ages since the early 70s. Between 1970-1976, 30 states lowered their Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) from 21 to 18, 19, or 20 (HRF). In the United States, when a citizen reaches the age of eighteen, they are considered an adult by law. Therefore, they should be treated as such and be allowed to make their own decisions. If an eighteen-year-old can be prosecuted as an adult in court, they should also be able to decide whether or not they choose to consume alcohol.

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Drinking should be similarly restricted due to the responsibility required to self and others. MLDA 21 reduces traffic accidents and fatalities. 100 of the 102 analyses(98%) in a 2002 meta-study of the legal drinking ages associated with lower rates of traffic accidents (procon.org). The national highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated the MLDA 21 decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for 18 to 20 year old by 13% and saved approximately 27,052 lives from 1875-2000

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Procon.org also states that “Prohibiting this age group from drinking in bars, restaurants, and other licensed locations causes them to drink in unsupervised places such as fraternity houses or house parties where they may be more prone to binge drinking and other unsafe behavior.” When they do this it leads to alcohol poisoning, where other students or underage drinkers don’t want to call for help because their afraid their going to get busted. This is teaching kids that’s its ok to not be safe before getting

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1294 Words | 6 Pages

A lot people question whether the legal drinking age should be lowered, or remain at 21. Some may think it isn’t such a good idea, because of the lack of maturity, and others may think it a good idea, because some people are going to do it anyway. However there are many pros and cons of lowering the legal drinking age. One pro is that the actual age where a person is considered to be an adult is 18.

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1412 Words | 6 Pages

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2060 Words | 9 Pages

On July 17,1984 the United States national drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 after MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) began to build awareness and gain support. MADD was founded after a 46 year-old drunk driver killed a thirteen year-old girl in a traffic accident (Streeter). The movement originated with efforts to decrease drunk drinking and to keep alcohol from the hands of young adults; and it would soon gain enough support that it reached Congress who would pass the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The act declared that all states must raise their minimum drinking age to 21 or face a 10% penalty to their federal highway dollars (Streeter). Despite the efforts put forth to increase safety and limit drunk driving, the 21 year old drinking age has been disastrous for young adults by creating dangerous situations, developing preventable traffic incidents, and allowing people to believe it is acceptable to bypass the law; therefore the drinking age should be lowered to 18 and be enforced effectively.

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Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

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835 Words | 4 Pages

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827 Words | 4 Pages

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