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Legal Drinking Age Should Be 18 Essay

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Due to the unsafe behaviour the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA 21) causes teens to perform it should be changed to MLDA 18. MLDA 18 would help the economy immensely, there is no evidence to prove that a legal drinking age of 21 helps lower rates of suicide, homicide, or vandalism, and there is the fact that MLDA 21 causes teens to have to sneak alcohol and when they do that they perform unsafe activities because there is no supervision. People under 21 are forced to sneak alcohol, therefor they are putting themselves and others in danger because of their rebellious actions. Just because the MLDA says that it is illegal for anyone under 21 years old to drink, it does not mean people are going to listen. There could be many counter arguments about how lowering MLDA will cause the same problems for 15-18 year olds. Yes, younger teens will drink no matter what but when people between these ages underage drink they have to sneak alcohol and they are too afraid to seek help if they need it. A survey was done and forty-five percent of underage drinkers admitted that …show more content…

In a meta-study of the connection between alcohol and suicide and crime rates in 2002 it was concluded that the only thing MLDA 21 does is increase the suicide and crime rates by thirty-three percent. The most probable reason for this increase is that safe practices for alcohol use are not taught to anyone under the minimum drinking age and when these practices are not taught these teenagers that are drinking will drink too much in fear that they will never have alcohol again until they are 21 years old. In order to decrease the rates of homicide, suicide, and vandalism, MLDA should be lowered to 18 so drinking practices are a common thing among everyone. If the MLDA is lowered, these people that can now drink legally will be taught safe drinking practices so tragedies like murder, suicide, and destruction do not happen as

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The essay implies no matter how old drinking people are older MLDA will lead to less drinking, fewer injuries and fewer deaths. In other words, if MDLA is lowered to 18 or lower, then young people tend to fall in drunk driving and they will be injured or die. As a statistical example, this essay uses the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s estimation which has saved more than 25,000 lives since 1975 after setting the MDLA 21. This research strengthens this essay’s claim that higher MDLA proves the higher life-saving. On the other hand, the proponent essay says that “drunk driving fatalities are lower now than they were in 1982”, but the author does not uses any statistical research which proves that they are lower

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The drinking age should not be changed to 18 due to a lack of maturity, the statistics and consequences of underage drinking while driving, and the effect alcohol has on the adolescent body. Being 18 means that you are only about halfway through being fully developed.(2) Tony Cox, host from NPR News, says, “That critical parts of the brain involved in decision-making are not fully developed until years later at age 25 or so. ”(3) Based on this information, teenagers decision making skills would lean toward seeing the positive side of drinking instead of the negative consequences. The drinking age should be 25, because at this age, people won’t fall under influence from their peers like it occurs with teens.(2)

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According to the chart, most of the drinking is being done by teens. The chart depicts that only a small amount of youths wait until they are legal to start drinking. Lowering MLDA will encourage and increase the amount of drinking among young teens. It will also lead to an increase in risky behavior which will have dire consequences for youth. “Letting younger people drink is giving immature citizens more of the ability to make bad decisions that not only affect themselves but can also be very harmful to others”.

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When talking about alcohol the subject of binge drinking comes up. This act of consumption is extremely dangerous and can cause many health risks, including- (unintentional injuries, intentional injuries, alcohol poisoning, STDs, unintentional pregnancy, etc.) (CDC) and at the worst death. This is a very tragic trend that would only be fed more aggressively if the MLDA was lowered to 18 from 21. The facts are: “About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.”

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Even at home utilizing their parents liquor unbenounced of their parents The drinking age should be lowered to the age of majority. Teenagers have a tend to break the law more because of either being careless or peer pressure. Alcohol is one of the biggest crimes right next to marijuana for kids. “By age 18, more than 70% of teens have had at least one drink.” (Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.).

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Teenagers have been purchasing alcohol with fake ID cards, getting into bars and clubs, and drinking liquor illegally for years. Lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 would be a helpful and effective step in stopping binge drinking and encouraging the enjoyable act of consuming alcohol, reducing traffic accidents, and allowing those in the 18-to-20 year old age

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Everyone knows it happens; whether it’s house parties, parties out in the woods, or just drinking on the down low, underage drinking occurs everywhere. The minimum legal drinking age doesn’t stop underage drinkers, and law enforcement does not make stopping underage drinkers a priority. Why should the MLDA be set at 21 if nobody follows or enforces the law? Arguers say a legal age of 18 would result in a higher compliance with the law. On the flip side, studies have shown that the current drinking laws prevent binge drinking by making alcohol less available for those most susceptible to binge drinking, teenagers.

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This can be very true and many minors do fall into the category that these adults are talking about, the minors that drink for one reason, to get drunk. While many underage drinkers fall into this category, it is still very unfair to the other, more mature eighteen year olds who know how to be responsible and will not abuse

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Many different unions, including: The American Medical Association, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and even a number of alcohol distributors, have argued passionately against lowering the drinking age (Scharnberg). American’s attitudes towards drinking alcohol show widespread opposition to lowering the drinking age to 18 in all states. Also, a majority of the people support making penalties for underage drinking stricter than they are now to prevent many unfortunate accidents

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Today, the legal drinking age is a low 18 years of age. Tomorrow it will be the same, and tomorrow 13 more lives will be lost unless we take action. A whopping 5,000 young innocent lives under the age of 21 are lost each year and 599,000 lives are injured, and the number is increasing. So, each day that we sit by doing nothing, more lives are lost and you never know, you or your friends could be the next victim to alcohol. David J. Hanson, who for 40 years has studied alcohol states, “when you give them that responsibility of drinking, they will drink to an excess.”

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Opponents of the bill suggest that raising the purchasing age has led many youth to unhealthy drinking habits and alcoholism. Seeing how easy it was to raise the drinking age it would probably be even easier to lower it back down, if congress would agree to it. Opponents of the NMDA suggest that the raise in drinking age has also raised the amount of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. They claim “teenagers "learn" to drink at parties and other social situations, which encourage excessive binge drinking and poor judgement.” Studies have also shown that alcohol abuse at a young age greatly increases the risk of alcoholism in the future.

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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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However, these views may easily be refuted. Drinking is a responsibility meant for adults. Teens drinking at this age can lead to mental and physical problems for the person. The drinking age should stay twenty-one so that they will be more responsible about drinking.

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