Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

In 2006, the national center on addiction and substance abuse reported that people under the age of twenty-one were responsible for over seventeen percent of consumer spending on alcohol in the United States. In the past, there have been numerous efforts to reduce the number of underage drinkers. For instance, The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, this act makes it illegal for persons under the age of twenty-one years old to consume alcohol. Apparently from the data reported by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse the acts efforts have proved ineffective. In Russell Behrmann’s article “The US should lower the drinking age to 18” he says that the act has in fact “exacerbated the problem of binge drinking among youths.” This is why the legal drinking age should be eliminated, this would cause the appeal of alcohol consumption to decrease which would also cause a decrease in drunk driving as well as alcohol abuse in teens. Many organizations such as MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) and the AMA (American Medical Association) are against the idea of abolishing the drinking age. These organizations claim that getting rid of the drinking age would make the number of underage drinking related fatalities increase greatly. MADD supports this prediction by stating on their

The adults in these countries use an educational approach to teach their children to respect alcohol form a young age. “Religious behaviors (religious attendance, prayer, and importance) have been shown to be a protective factor against alcohol use among college students.” (Carmack and Lewis). It all starts with parents teaching their children proper alcohol use and eventually those same children will be teaching their future children proper alcohol use. Setting this proper example would be a key component in reducing alcohol abuse in young