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Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

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Here in America, teenagers and young adults are not given the exposure and experience of drinking legally until the age of twenty-one. Popular belief encourages the enforcement of this law, but postponing the education of alcohol does more harm than good. The prohibition of alcoholic beverages did not work in the past nor is it working currently, it is only encouraging irresponsible behavior from adolescents. Though many people disagree, the legal drinking age of the United States should be lowered to the age of eighteen if not sixteen.
What do the young Americans gain from this failing attempt at prohibition? (Other than added danger and irresponsibility to drinking due to the lack of experience or learning environment to gain responsibility) …show more content…

Adolescents experience internal and external pressures on a daily basis. Many of those exposed to alcohol consumption second hand do not know the dangers that could follow. Kids are exposed to alcohol by billboards, tv shows, magazine ads, friends and family members. Because they have absorbed the good drinking habits they've seen, those raised around responsible drinkers are more apt to be responsible drinkers themselves. A majority of teen drinking dangers lie with those in broken situations. The ones that do not know or do not care. To kids with a troublesome home life, alcoholic relatives, or those internal and external pressures, drinking “fixes” the anxiety, depression, and stress (Dailey). Teens with the “rebellious” side that think binge drinking is “cool” and do not care about their well being can be known to TRY to get drunk, and routinely (Chafetz). This is why it is our job to teach alcohol as a cultural norm, in hopes to prevent dangerous teen drinking and encourage …show more content…

Yes, it is true that driving after consuming alcohol unnecessarily kills thousands of people a year; but it’s our own fault for driving intoxicated (Main). Many people discourage the change of the drinking age because not only are another 5,000 people killed a year thanks to alcohol, it is also a major factor in violence, rapes, and assaults (Main). However, consider this, if violence such as this comes from drunken anger, wouldn’t the best answer be to discourage drinking to the point of intoxication rather than postpone education and awareness? In a survey, over three quarters of adults questioned believe that lowering the drinking age would be harmful to youth by making alcohol more accessible at a younger age (Main). On the contrary, it would only promote early exposure and experience. Wherever there are cons there are pros that contradict each

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Currently the legal drinking age is 21, and there have been many controversial debates on whether to lower the age or not. However, there are both pros and cons to this topic. One of the biggest argument in favor of lowering the drinking age is that in United States, an eighteen years old can do so many things then why not drinking. For example, an 18 years old can vote for the presidential elections, have license to drive, pay taxes, marr, can be a legal guardian, own a gun, fight in a war, and can be a governor of a state. When an 18 years old is allowed to do all of the following above then why not allowed to be drinking.

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Statics show that the most common source of alcohol among 18- to 20-year olds is from their 21- to 24-year-old peers. As presented by the drinkingage, a website with the pros and cons of reducing the drinking age, reducing the drinking age will would give high schoolers and even middle schoolers easier access to alcohol. As the drinking age would be reduce the chance of keeping younger children away from the presence of alcohol would be diminished as well. As the high school is effected so is the grade school, as the senior is introduced to alcohol so is the 6th grader, reducing the drink age will cause great harm not just to the allowed genera As the high school is effected so is the grade school, as the senior is introduced to alcohol so is the 6th grader, reducing the drink age will cause great harm not just to the allowed generation but also the younger generation beneath

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Even more serious than students failing is their health begins to get extremely bad. About 150,000 college students develop these health related problems due to drinking (Hall). In 1984, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act required all fifty states to lower their drinking age or be faced with a ten percent decrease in federal funding for their highways (Hall). This may seem like a good idea but in fact instead of helping the states with the safety of the people, the government decided to push the states to inhabit this new law. And just because they prohibited it, doesn’t mean that the market for it disappear.

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Over the years the controversial question, “Should the drinking age be lowered back down to 18?”, is constantly contemplated. One reason this should be changed is, there are no age restrictions at this age except for buying and drinking alcohol. Also, at the age of 18, Americans can vote, buy tobacco products, join the armed forces, drive, marry, and even get sentenced to death. Second, questions arise about possible addiction, lower brain activity at a younger age, and a higher rate of alcohol poisoning death.

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The current law that says the legal drinking age is twenty-one has done a good job in decreasing death rates. There was a sixty-one percent decrease in alcohol related crashes from 1982 to 1988. Opposers to the drinking law say that by increasing the age to twenty-one only pushed the death rate from eighteen to twenty-year-olds to twenty-one to twenty-four-year-olds (“By the Numbers”). Although they say this, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that more than 23,000 deaths have been prevented because of the drinking law. Scott Falb, a safety specialist with the Iowa Department of Transportation once said, “ One of the biggest advantages of the twenty-one-year-old drinking age is that it’s significantly harder for kids [under 21] to find alcohol and then to drive” (“Minimum Drinking”).

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Why the drinking age should not be lowered As we all know and understand, alcohol has to be handled with responsibility and not to be misuse. Alcoholism affects so many people in the United States due to irresponsible decisions, but most legally teens who are considered adults say, once you are eighteen, you should be able to do whatever you want because you gained more civil rights by being able to vote, purchase tobacco products and join the forces so why not be allowed to purchase alcohol products and consume it. At the age of eighteen, teens are viewed as adults that supposed to mature enough to purchase all the above wish list they have written down.

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The drinking age should be lowered Student’s Name Institution: Drinking Age should be lowered Nineteen Years The problem with drinking has been in existence in America for a long time. Young children have been caught drunk despite the laws in place meant to curb their drinking. However, the drinking problem does not have anything to do with age. Adults cause accidents due to drunk driving and engage in drunken fights.

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(Ruth Ann, “Lowering the Legal Drinking Age Will Reduce Alcohol’s Allure” 2) By restricting laws on alcohol, less people are likely to disobey the law. “Instead, the main consequence of this law has been to drive college-age alcohol consumption underground, which has in all likelihood increased that consumption and probably actually increased drunk driving.” This probably goes hand in hand with colleges who are “dry.” Going back to the rebellious argument, this could increase the amount of underage students who consume alcohol, under the staff’s “radar” of

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As we all know, teens make the wrong decisions when their drinking which lead to serious effects. On average as statistics show “ 3,000 americans underage drinking dies every year to alcohol related” which is a high number for teens when they shouldn't even be drinking at all and the number of lives lost to alcohol from 18 to 24 year olds is still going up on the daily. Statistics show that there are about “ 300,000 incidents a day due to drinking and driving, 10,497 deaths a year , 29 dying every day and 290,000 injured per year” which not only affects yourself but loved ones that are unnecessarily impacted by this preventable crime. Addinaotially, back in the 70s the U.S. had lowered the drinking age from 21 but it turned out a public disaster worldwide and the death rates amongst others had jumped to 10 to 40 percent so they had it switched back to 21. However, having the drinking age at 21 “ 25,000 lives had been saved rather than having it lowered” as research

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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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According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, almost 80% or high school students have tried alcohol (“Alcohol”). These students are more likely to show serious drinking problems (including alcoholism) later in life usually during the middle age and adulthood. This is a problem for today’s youth, and there is public debate that the minimum legal drinking age of 21 years is not working to prevent youths from using alcohol. Lowering the legal age to 18 will make alcohol more available to those that are younger to purchase and consume. Even though 18 is the legal age of adulthood, the minimum legal drinking age should remain at 21 because alcohol damages the body is not done maturing, reduces alcohol-related fatalities, and reduces risky behavior.

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Many teens do not know their tolerance when drinking. Teens also tend to take advantage of the opportunity to drink when alcohol is involved (Ogilvie Par6). They tend to drink more than they can handle (Ogilvie Par6). Excess drinking can take place in places that are uncontrolled and even in fraternity houses (Ogilvie Par7). These are places that promote drinking games and excessive, rapid consumption of alcohol (Ogilvie Par7).

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In the United States alone, 35.1 % of individuals aged 12-20 have answered to having no less than one alcohol beverage in their lifetime, in this way. You may feel that the quantity of children taking part in underage drinking isn't disturbing at first; that is until you investigate the number of kids, high school students, and youthful grown-ups being harmed or even slaughtered while drinking. Studies demonstrate that all things considered, 4,500 individuals less than 21 years old kick the bucket every year in alcohol related mishaps. Drinking can bring about a person less than 21 years old to have extremely misguided thinking, for instance; numerous underage drinkers are more inclined to get in the driver's seat of a vehicle in light of the fact that they should be home by a certain time; they don't think about the repercussions that getting in the driver's seat of a vehicle can have on their live, as well as on the lives of others too. There are 1,900 deaths every year because of underage drinking by vehicle crashes.

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Nearly 10 million young people, ages 12 to 20, reported that they've consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. The Drinking Age should not be lowered for the health and the safety of human beings. Somethings that can be caused from underage drinking aggressive behavior, property damage, injury, violence, and death. Alcohol reduces our ability to think straight and it narrows the focus of attention and gives one tunnel vision. Binge drinking increases the likelihood of both becoming aggressive and being on receiving end of someone else temper.

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The U.S. has a problem that needs to be fixed, the problem they are currently facing is underage drinking. This problem has been going on for a few years now, but there just hasn’t been an effective solution to stop it. A way to stop this problem is by making some sort of law or rule that will prevent teens from drinking and causing more problems. This is a problem because it is a safety issue and when teens are drunk, they tend to make stupid decisions.

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