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Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

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Research Paper Zack Means 4* Period Should you be allowed to drink alcoholic beverages at 18 years old? After all 18 is when most adult privileges are received anyway. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 in the United States. For about 40 years ago there have been discrepancies about the drinking age. In the late 60s and early 70s exactly 29 states lowered their drinking age. They did this because they wanted to at least match the enlistment and voting age. Which was and is 18. This resulted in drunk-driving accidents. This cause 16 out of the original 29 states to move their drinking age back to 21 in early 1983. Then, July 17, 1983 President Reagan signed to a “uniform age of 21” for legal …show more content…

It increases risks for “addiction”, “memory loss”, “suicide” and “depression”. This is the number 1 Con on procon.org. Lowering the drinking age will increase traffic fatalities more than they already are. In the New York Times Tara Watson say traffic fatalities will become more frequent. So many 22 year olds die due to over alcoholic consumption, so lowering the MLDA would be irresponsible to increase the chance of more fatalities. According to Cdc.gov “excessive drinking contributes to more than 4,300 deaths among people below 21 in the US each year”. Lowering the LACA (Legal Alcohol Consumption Age) would just increase that …show more content…

There is a lot of websites that say that if the US lowered the drinking age will increase drunk driving accidents. In procon.org “since 1982… driving fatalities occurred across all age groups….therefore it can not be reliably attributed to MLDA 21”. The biggest argument against lowering the drinking is the driving fatalities. But know there is reason to believe that it will not affect the fatalities. The alcohol flow has not been stopped by MLDA 21. It has just been “pushed underground” causing more risky behaviors and situations. The MLDA will not affect the underaged drinking age accidents because the already occur in most

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Lawmakers are risking other lives if they lower the drinking age. “An average of 17,000 individuals die each year in drinking related deaths” (Nagin). Alcohol does a lot to how the body functions. In a way it affects how your brain functions. Alcohol has different effects depending on your age.

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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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Alcohol is the drug of choice for most teenagers regardless of the rules that are in place. On April 14, 1982, President Reagan established the Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving (PCDD). These were 39 recommendations on how to stop the drunk driving epidemic at the time. One of the recommendations was raising the drinking age to 21 which they did and it was very effective for its time, but is it time to update the law? Each side has good and bad reasons for lowering the drinking

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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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It has instead pushed underage binge drinking into private and less controlled environments, leading to more health and life-endangering behaviors by teens. If the legal drinking age was lowered, those teens would be able to drink in a more controlled and much more safe environment where they can be monitored and supervised. Then they will be less likely to harm themselves or others. The second argument that is used is that there are fewer drunk driving accidents in countries with lower drinking ages. In quite a few countries around the world, the legal drinking age is already 18.

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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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Getting married and voting for the next president has a larger effect on one’s life, and is more difficult than consuming alcohol (“9 Prevailing Pros”). If the drinking age was lowered it would be better on the economy, because there would be more people going to bars and night clubs, so they would be making more money (Drinking Age). Another reason why the drinking age should be decreased to 18 is that is would potentially reduce the amount of underage young adults drinking. Many young adults that are underage binge drink being that it is against the law for them to drink (Brown). If the drinking age was lowered than it would also reduce the thrill of breaking the law.

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“If the legal age were lowered in the US it would have to come with much more education in this area, not just the shock-value of Every 15 Minutes” said Ulrike Skillman, math teacher at Saugus. Skillman suggests the lowering of the drinking age will have to come with more alcohol education and that is the exact purpose of a “drinking license.” Which would allow 18 year olds to consume alcohol, with strict regulations, then take classes to officially receive a “drinking license” at 21 years old. The license would replicate a driver’s license, but be geared toward consuming alcohol.

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Lowering the legal drinking age to eighteen would cause major health problems in the future. Having the age at twenty-one has saved over 500 lives per year. The main cause of car crashes is driving under the influence, not phone or electronic usage of any kind. Alcohol poisoning is a leading cause of death in countries with a lower legal

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Now most of these are not significant increases but are still evidence that shows the increase in visits after MLDA. We have a total of approximately 9.6% increase in self-inflicted injuries, a total of approximately 2.2% in assaults, and a total of approximately 3.4% increase in external injuries. All these were recorded while the person was under the influence of alcohol. The one major increase we can all see as the minimum legal drinking age has gone down is that the number of alcohol poisoning related visits has significantly gone up in numbers, for males and females. In males, we saw an increase of about 17.3% in alcohol poisoning related visits to the hospital.

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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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With all due respect, I truly think that the drinking age should not be lowered to 19. In my perspective drinking is bad for everyone. Drinking is dangerous to everyone. I am going to explain why not to drink through health issues, younger age people and not to drink and drive. The risks of drinking alcohol are health issues, your body wouldn’t stay fit if you are drinking too much.

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The pure thought to get caught by the police or your parents is frightening to teens or underage drinkers and that 's why people use binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as excessive amounts of alcohol consumed in a short period of time. Teens do this because when your illegally drinking you don 't particularly have a lot of time to drink so you just do it as fast as you can to use the time you have with your friends to get wasted but to be home before curfew. Many accidents and deaths have happened because of binge drinking, and we could lower the chances of binge drinking by lowering the legal drinking age to 18. The effects alcohol takes on the brain is the only “downside” to lowering the drinking age, but if used responsibly it 's not that big of a problem.

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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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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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