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Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

893 Words4 Pages

Could you imagine a 45 year old alcoholic and gang leader sitting alongside a fresh 18 year old at a bar? Today, it may seem ludicrous but soon this situation may become reality due to the support for lowering the legal age of recreational alcohol consumption from 21 to 18. At 18 years old, teens are hardly able to manage a grocery list and safely control vehicles such as cars, motorcycles etc. Therefore, expecting them to limit their consumption to what is considered appropriate while abiding by laws previously implemented, such as the policy of not drinking and driving is prone to be a precursor to a life of alcoholism and perpetual failure to meet requirements. Medical professionals can validate that drinking at 18 has a much more profound impact on an individual compared to drinking at the age of 21, both physically and mentally. Furthermore, lowering the legal age of alcohol consumption will be a burden and responsibility that all of society …show more content…

Many adults undermine this without considering the long term effects. Drinking under the age of 21, can “interfere with with the development of the young adult’s brain’s frontal lobe,” which serves as a regulator of emotions and gives us the ability to make sensical plans and organizational decisions. Additionally, alcohol influences the functionality of every organ including the liver, kidneys, heart etc. causing detrimental and painful diseases such as cirrhosis. Consequently, people who drink at a young age will only add to the increasing amount of alcoholics and temperamental handicaps in society. In terms of short term effects, I feel that many 18 year olds aren’t mature enough to responsibly handle their alcohol. Restless energy should be applied towards more productive areas, such as studying or playing a sport rather than killing brain

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Alcohol should not be held on until after age 21 it ends up glorifying it. Many young adults are not taught how to drink in moderation and are more likely to abuse alcohol. According to Engs (2014) Because the 21-year-old drinking age law is not working, and is counterproductive, it behooves us as a nation to change our current prohibition law and to teach responsible drinking techniques for those who chose to consume alcoholic beverages. A lower drinking age would allow the chance for people to be watched and guidance on how to drink

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If the drinking age is lowered then they can’t blame it on other people they have to take full responsibility for the buying of alcohol.

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The legal drinking age in the United States is currently 21, which dissatisfies many teens throughout the nation. Previously, our country held a policy that was less strict, allowing citizens of the age of 18 the right to drink. This was true until the Reagan Administration passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, altering the legal age to one that is already given the right to vote and fight for our country. This begs the question, should the legal drinking age in the United States be lowered? By mirroring the drinking age of other countries around the world, we have the possibility of being able to teach young Americans to act more maturely and grow up responsibly.

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Prohibiting this age group from drinking in licensed locations influences them to drink in unsupervised places. Individuals will often drink in locations such as fraternities and/or parties where there are higher tendencies to participate in unsafe behavior. Despite increasing MLDA to 21 in 1984, the number of traffic accidents and fatalities that occurred within the 80s decreased less than that of countries whose legal drinking ages are already below 21 (Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?). In numerous European countries, teenagers at the age of 18 are allowed to drink in restaurants and other public places, under the supervision of trusted authority figures (Anderson). In the US, contrarily, teenagers at the age of 18 are not eligible to consume or purchase alcohol, and participate in these acts in risky areas where they are not under any supervision (Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?).

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“The average age at which young people ages 12 to 17 begin to drink is 13 years old. The average age that underage drinker ages 12 to 20 begin to drink is 16.2 years old” (John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). Thinking about those statistics makes me sick. I feel that the drinking age should not be lowered because it is too harmful to the body. Parts of our body’s that can be effected by drinking alcohol is your brain, heart, stomach, and liver.

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Allowing 18 year olds to legally drink alcohol will give middle schoolers and high schoolers easier access to alcohol. This is because many high schoolers are 18 years old their senior year. The seniors will then buy alcohol for their friends and/or siblings that are not of legal age. Studies have shown that college students ages 18-20 years old are less likely to engage in binge drinking than those of legal drinking age. Although this may be true, it is also a proven fact that “the heaviest-drinking college students are more likely to have been heavy drinkers in high school”(Wechsler, Henry, and Toben F. Nelson).

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The United States has one of the highest drinking ages in the world, yet more than 70 percent of teens have consumed alcohol at least once in their life. There are more and more fatalities from alcohol and many believe this problem has to do with the legal drinking age. In a way it is kind of strange that at eighteen years old a person can join the military and be trusted to defend our country and take a bullet, yet they cannot be trusted to drink alcohol. At eighteen years old that is the age where a child becomes an adult; they can vote, purchase tobacco, and join the military not to mention other things. Alcohol is always going to have the same effects on people, no matter what age after a person is intoxicated they are not the same.

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Will Lowering the Drinking Age Ensure Public Safety? The alcohol industry can often be seen as one of the wealthiest and most successful components of the American economy. In a year, the American people invest $90 billion in alcoholic beverages (“The Authority in Drug and Alcohol”). Although the U.S. spends a substantial amount of money on alcoholic beverages, the effects of alcohol do not go unnoticed.

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Despite the heavy debates about what the minimum drinking age should be, it continues today to be the lead in the most decreasing alcohol consumption and reduced alcohol-related morbidity and mortality (Saylor, 2011). Today, a 21st birthday has became a right of passage. Making a direct link to between the minimum drinking age and binge drinking. “The recent Amethyst Initiative argues that a minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 has created a culture of heavy alcohol use on campuses by making drinking clandestine and extreme” (Saylor, 2011, pg 330).

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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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599 Words | 3 Pages

Excessive drinking is in charge of more than 4,300 passings among underage drinkers throughout the years. Bringing down the drinking age from 21 to 18 is something I am against in view of these reasons. A few teenagers drink when they are under the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA), particularly on school grounds and at secondary schools. Some of them have motivations to why they drink.

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1584 Words | 7 Pages

If the drinking age was lower, Americans could drink in moderation with guidance from trusted adults. This matters because the Amethyst Initiative’s 130 college presidents say that since drinking underage is illegal, teens drink in private places with no supervision or guidance in drinking safely (b). This causes about forty percent of teens and students to develop bad drinking habits by the time they get to college according to Bret Sokolow, president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (f). The legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen because it is the lowest legal adult age. Young adults can take this opportunity to learn how to live and drink

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416 Words | 2 Pages

Not only that but drinking at such young ages greatly increase the risk of developing alcohol & health problems later in life. For example, liver issues, heart damage, thinning bones (osteoporosis), and so many effects it can have on your body. According to The New York Times,”Any move toward increasing alcohol availability to young adults must consider its adverse effects, including traffic fatalities, unplanned pregnancy, and crime.” If you want the community to be safe and the future of these teens protected, the law should stay at the age 21. Even though drinking at younger ages is more pleasurable & it would reduce the number of underage people who are hurt from alcohol-related injuries or accidents due to fear of legal consequences if they reached for medical attention.

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769 Words | 4 Pages

Till date many law have been passed to control the alcohol consumption in South Australia. However majority of the laws have been focused on economic and business side of the issue, such as tax reform. Unfortunately this has not brought major difference as young people are still as addicted and attracted to alcohol as before. Therefore I strongly believe that another advocacy of increasing the initiation of drinking age to 21 should be joined in the existing laws. By raising the initial drinking age it would protect young adults from psychological and other health harm such as liver cancer and other damage caused by the inadequate consumption of alcohol.

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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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