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Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

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Dr. Dre says, “You got to realise that when I was 20 years old, I had a house, a Mercedes, a Corvette and a million dollars in the bank before I could buy alcohol legally” (“Dr. Dre: Networth”). All throughout America there has been a raising question, “Should the legal drinking age be lowered?” Surprisingly, the legal age was 18 years old for a period of time before the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act prohibits anyone under 21 from purchasing or publicly possessing alcoholic beverages. Currently, America's legal drinking age is still 21 years old. Although specific regulations differ from states, this is generally widespread throughout them all. As a matter of fact, alcohol is one …show more content…

Instead of drinking in unsupervised places, young adults will be able to drink in places with less of a risk. They will drink in places like bars, restaurants and other licensed venues. Frequently, when bad things happen at parties, they are scared to speak up because of fear of getting in trouble for drinking. In this case, teenagers fear being told “Alcohol should not have been there in the first place.” Also, If the drinking age is lowered, universities and high schools can educate students on how to drink responsibly. This will teach young adults to avoid binge drinking. Moreover, they would be less scared to just call someone to pick them up, rather than get in their car drunk. According to Attorney Rich Stime:
Although drivers under the age of 21 represent 10 percent of licensed drivers they are responsible for 17 percent of fatal alcohol-related crashes. Approximately 2,000 underage drinkers die each year behind the wheel and alcohol is a factor in a third of all teenage auto fatalities. Another problem is that underage drinkers have a tendency to binge drink as reflected in the blood alcohol content (BAC) of victims of intoxicated underage car accidents -- on average, five times the legal limit (.40 BAC).

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So one time when my parents and I are going for a drive, there was a man who zoomed passed us and was driving like crazy. For instance innocent people could have gotten hurt by drunk drivers. Indeed Minimum Legal Drinking Age 21 decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for 18-20 year olds by 13%. This saved approximately 27052 lives from 1975-2008. When the age for drinking age is 21 or older this can save a lot of people in so many ways possible.

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2110 Words | 9 Pages

There has been talk for many years to lower the drinking age from twenty-one back down to eighteen. Many people think it should be lowered and others think it is fine where it is. The main reason why the drinking age is at twenty-one is because the United States’ government, told states that if they do not raise their drinking age up to twenty-one the government would take away funding for their roads and bridges. The government threatened these states with this so that they would follow the government’s rules on the drinking age. The reason they threatened them with that was because a few teenagers got in car accidents when they were 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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829 Words | 4 Pages

There has always been the conflict over whether or not the legal drinking age should be changed. Some people protest that by lowering the drinking age younger people know what to expect about the effects of alcohol when they get older. Others believe drinking at a young age can lead to addiction and alcoholism, liver failure, and other serious problems thus increasing death rates and alcoholics. There are more serious negative outcomes that happen with teen drinking such as drunk driving and unintentional terrible decision making. ( Con 2016)

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Since 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated that the minimum drinking age being raised has saved over 21,000 lives over the 50 states (“Debating the Issues”, n.d.). According to the CDC (2014), there has been a 16% decrease in car accidents since states

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604 Words | 3 Pages

In the United States, eighteen year olds are allowed to get married, go to war, have kids, are old enough to vote, but still are not old enough to drink. At eighteen, you are allowed to go fight in combat but are not allowed to go to a liquor store. At eighteen years old, you are legally an adult in the states and you are now responsible for all the rights as an adult. Therefore, the drinking age should be

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More specifically, many people believe that lowering the legal MLDA to 18 will allow adolescents to gain the experience they need to become more responsible drinkers. For instance, people ages 18-20 will “get an idea of their tolerance and learn to drink under supervision at bars (or on campus, if in college), rather than at uncontrolled private parties away from school” (Center for Science in The Public Interest). This shows that many advocates for lowering the MLDA believe that supervision in bars and on university campuses will prevent students from doing any harm. They believe that this will be the most efficient and least harmful way of introducing alcohol to young adults. However, despite the fact that lowering the legal MLDA may help adolescents to learn their tolerance, it still can not prevent them from creating dangerous environments for themselves and the people around them.

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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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But while it has succeeded in that, it is also believed that tougher rules, such as DUI rules and seatbelt safety rules have also played a part in this decrease. However, this higher drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking, its only “driven it underground,” Gabrielle Glaser states in her NY Times article. It has been driven underground to the riskiest settings, high school parties and frat parties that are unsupervised. This age raise segregates the drinking away from adults that can model moderation in drinking. If an 18-year-old high school senior is shown by his/her parent(s) how to drink responsibly and in moderation, I believe that it would greatly help in reducing the chance of making bad decisions by overdoing it, such as driving while drinking.

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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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1677 Words | 7 Pages

Under the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which became a law in 1984, it prohibited the possession or sale of alcohol to a person younger than 21. If the person is caught they will face consequences like jail time and other punishments. This caused many states to switch the drinking age to 21. (Wechsler and Toben Pg.

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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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827 Words | 4 Pages

The drinking age should be lowered, because brains are not fully developed yet, colleges should be able to regulate drinking, and this can solve problems with kids underage drinking. Despite the controversy, the drinking age should decrease for many logical reasons. The drinking age has been a debate between the ages 18 to the age of 21 for a while now. Over the years, studies have showed favors toward the age of 21.

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By the time they are high school seniors, seventy-two percent teenagers say they have already consumed alcohol. Proper education at younger ages is needed for our country’s youth to learn the proper use of alcohol through experimentation with their own limits in safe environments.

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1681 Words | 7 Pages

Young adults are most likely to have car accidents than older adults. This also shows that young adults are more likely to lose their life in a car accident due to drinking, than any other situation. As a result, people don’t think of the huge mistake they are getting into by being behind the wheel while under the influence. Overuse of drinking can lead to violence and any other situation, because people are not aware of what

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