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Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

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The Drinking Age is Set at 21 for a Reason Thousands of dollars in fines, court trials, serving time in jail, your driver’s license being revoked. All of these punishments are for minors who have possession of alcohol and they are there for a reason. The legal drinking age has been set to 21 for about twenty years and has not been changed since the 90’s. Recently the argument on whether or not the country should minimize the age when a person can consume alcohol has been reintroduced to our society. Some states are considering reducing the age at which a person can drink to 18 again. People are all over the idea that once you are 18, you can indulge in an alcoholic beverage. But, decreasing the age creates a whole new array of problems most people are not aware of. Drinking at a young age puts teens and other motorists at risk, so the legal drinking age should not be lowered to 18 to protect our nation’s youth. The legal drinking, 21, has not changed for many years now. About forty years ago, multiple states changed their drinking ages from 21 to 18. The effects started to show immediately and Mothers Against Drunk Driving caused the government to raise it back up to 21. The law has not budged …show more content…

Since their brains are not fully developed, the alcohol affects them a lot quicker than people who are over 21. “Because teens get drunk faster than adults, according to a MADD article, they have trouble knowing when to stop and are more likely to binge drink” (SIRS). Allowing alcohol to be available to people this young, can harm their bodies and puts other people at risk. At this stage of life, they are still maturing and that’s what causes them to not stop. As many people know teens are not the brightest and most mature humans out there, try adding alcohol into that. Altering this law would just lead to more devastating situations caused by irrational

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Imagine a world where you drive to work, have a fiance, vote for your government, and possibly have to go to war, but you aren’t old enough to have alcohol. In case you’re living under a rock, this is the world you are living in right now. In 1984, congress passed the Drinking Age Act. This act made all state 's minimum drinking age 21.

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495 Words | 2 Pages

Another organization also wanted the same idea“The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released a report that suggested the provinces legal drinking age to be increased to 21” (2013, Pg: ½) drinking too much alcohol can harm your health especially under the ages of 21. In the U.S.A

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

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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Why is the drinking age 21? The drinking age was not always at 21 in the United States. States had the right to choose at which age they wanted their citizens to drink legal. In the beginning of America’s history until 1919, there was no national drinking age.

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

The Drinking Age Should Be Lowered Alcohol! Should the legal drinking age be lowered? The answer to the question is yes, it should. The drinking age limit should be lowered because, in the eyes of the law, a person is seen as an adult at the age of eighteen, in other countries the lower drinking age is successful, and in college, the drinking among students increased after the limit was raised to twenty-one.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

There are many debates on whether the U.S drinking age should be lowered to 18 or not. The drinking age should not be lowered to 18 due to the cause of intoxicated drivers. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 32,719 people died in traffic crashes in 2013 in the United States( latest figures available), including an estimated 10,076 people who died in drunk driving crashes, accounting for 31% of an traffic deaths that year. With that said they should not let anyone fewer than 21 consume alcohol, except men and women who serve in our National Military on their base (responsibilty.org).

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1776 Words | 8 Pages

There is a large debate throughout the country about what the legal drinking age for each state should be. Currently, every state in the United States has a legal drinking age of 21. This has not always been the case. Between 1970-1976, it was made legal for states to choose their own legal drinking age. 30 states lowered their drinking ages ranging from 18-21 but this law was ultimately overruled and the legal nationwide age became 21 with the enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984(18 interesting pro, 2015).

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158 Words | 1 Pages

The minimum legal drinking age should not be lowered from the age of 21 to the age of 18. Your brain is not fully developed until about the age of 21. Another thing on why it should stay the same is people are a little more mature in their early twenties then when they were in their teens. Lowering MLDA 21 to 18 will responsibly allow a greater segment of the population to drink alcohol in bars and night clubs which are not safe environments. Almost eighty percent of bars sell alcohol to obviously intoxicated patrons; more than half of the drivers arrested for drinking while driving are while intoxicated and get a DWI.

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1685 Words | 7 Pages

At Duke University in 1999 74% of drinking violations were made by the freshmen. The drinking age at this time was twenty-one (Cohan). Alcohol affects an adolescents brain in many different ways (Too). Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and can be a stimulant and stop normal brain functions from functioning in the correct manor (Too). Drinking at a younger age can cause progressive aging to the brain at a more rapid pace and could result in damaging the frontal lobes permanently (Too).

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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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1086 Words | 5 Pages

While the legal drinking age is 21, that does not stop underage drinking in the United States. On July 17, 1984, President Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This was a law that required states to raise the drinking age to 21 or face a 10 percent cut to their federal highway funding. All of the states fulfilled the requirement and accepted the higher drinking age(Tietjen). One of the biggest that contributes to underage drinking is mainly because it is “off limits.”

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

In fact, only four other countries in the world have a legalized drinking age over 18; the minimum legal drinking age of 21 in the United States is one of the highest in the world. We ended up with a national minimum legal drinking age of 21 because of

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785 Words | 4 Pages

The legal drinking age is twenty one, and should stay the same at twenty one because of the risks of alcohol, its effects, and the number of deaths it causes. The risks of alcohol can be deadly, and cause health problems. The CDC states that drinking too much can harm drinkers mentally, physically, and emotionally. . Many people who drink when they are underage tend to have serious injury and can lead to death. Underage drinkers drink because they are influenced by others, peer pressured, also to cope with problems

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218 Words | 1 Pages

I agree that the drinking age of 21 is appropriate. If alcohol is consumed too early, it can meddle with advancement of the youthful grown-up mind's frontal lobes, crucial for capacities, for example, controlling emotions, arranging, and association. At the point when liquor utilization meddles with this early grown-up mental health, the potential for perpetual issues, for example, more noteworthy weakness to dependence, unsafe hazard taking conduct, decreased basic leadership capacity, memory misfortune, sadness, and suicide is more noteworthy. Lowering the age for drinking alcohol will untrustworthily permit a more noteworthy portion of the populace to consume liquor in bars and clubs, which are not protected situations. Numerous bars have

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1070 Words | 5 Pages

When it comes to alcohol they are still just kids. Where’s the fairness in the age being 21 and not 18? Why is 21 the "magical" age that makes one intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? Surely, some adults abuse alcohol and some teenagers would be perfectly able to drink responsibly. Accidents will happen no matter what age you start drinking it.

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