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Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

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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 …show more content…

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

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However, according to an interview done by Griggs (2014) for CNN News, the earlier the younger people start drinking the safer they become. He points out that the more forbidden alcohol becomes the more of a “forbidden fruit syndrome” it gets. Citing examples of countries such as France where parents serve kids small amounts of alcohol during mealtimes, Griggs (2014) suggests that it becomes unproblematic for parents to educate their children about alcohol consumption and take away the taboo fascination which is more often than not attached to it. Failure to this, the taboo allure drives teenagers to sneaky drinking sprees that offer a thrill of breaking the law to get a drink. CBS News notes that setting the drinking age at twenty-one does not solve the problems of underage drinking but rather drives it underground in the least manageable of settings; where even the moderation that is done by parents cannot be

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1387 Words | 6 Pages

For quite some time now, there has been numerous concerns to whether or not the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to a younger age such as 18 or 16. The minimum drinking age law in the United States has been established for over 20 years and is still gaining both supporters and detractors. Surprisingly, the United States has set the highest drinking age of 21 years old through the use of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, sharing that title with Indonesia, Mongolia and Palau. However, the majority of the world sets the minimum drinking age at 17 or younger. In our society today, young teenagers in high school and incoming college students are drinking illegally without any supervision of responsible adults.

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Prohibiting this age group from drinking in licensed locations influences them to drink in unsupervised places. Individuals will often drink in locations such as fraternities and/or parties where there are higher tendencies to participate in unsafe behavior. Despite increasing MLDA to 21 in 1984, the number of traffic accidents and fatalities that occurred within the 80s decreased less than that of countries whose legal drinking ages are already below 21 (Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?). In numerous European countries, teenagers at the age of 18 are allowed to drink in restaurants and other public places, under the supervision of trusted authority figures (Anderson). In the US, contrarily, teenagers at the age of 18 are not eligible to consume or purchase alcohol, and participate in these acts in risky areas where they are not under any supervision (Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?).

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It has instead pushed underage binge drinking into private and less controlled environments, leading to more health and life-endangering behaviors by teens. If the legal drinking age was lowered, those teens would be able to drink in a more controlled and much more safe environment where they can be monitored and supervised. Then they will be less likely to harm themselves or others. The second argument that is used is that there are fewer drunk driving accidents in countries with lower drinking ages. In quite a few countries around the world, the legal drinking age is already 18.

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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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In the book called “Teenage and Alcohol,” Torr mentioned that since it is prohibited, teenagers sneak out and end up drinking irresponsibly. Students ignore both the law and the police. In 2015, James C. Fell, Michael Scherer, and Robert Voas found that alcohol consumption was increased to 16.1%. However, they also mentioned that higher alcohol consumption and higher deadly car accidents among teenage driver are positively correlated. From this fact, one can see that lowering the drinking age because of weak rules and regulations is not a right

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“In 2015, 2,333 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed while under the influence and 221,313 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes in 2014” (“Motor Vehicle Safety”). This statistic brought up the real debate of should the legal drinking age remain 21. To some people the legal drinking age should remain 21, and that its the smart thing to do for our society. On the other hand some people think that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because people think that once you turn 18 your mature enough to start drinking. The drinking age should remain at the age of 21.

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Alcohol abuse and alcoholism seems like an issue that keeps getting increasingly worse each year in the United States. According to USA Today and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both say that approximately 6 people die from alcohol poisoning, caused from binge drinking, each day, which amounts to roughly 2,200 people each year. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that “In 2013 an estimated 697,000 adolescents ages 12–17 (2.8 percent of this age group) had an [alcohol use disorder]” (“Alcohol Facts”). Something has to stop and something has to change from preventing this more because 6 people dying each day from binge drinking alone is a lot, not to mention that 12-17 year olds are having alcohol problems at such a young age. Lowering the drinking age will enforce this act even more, promoting more drinking in fact.

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In today’s world, many people think the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen for reasons such as teens binge drinking, age requirements for military, and college students already doing it anyways. I disagree with these people after looking at the statistics and facts I found from several sources. This debate has gone on ever since the prohibition and will continue well into the future. The United States is one of few countries that has a drinking age of twenty-one. When considering the rates of drunk driving, college violence, and the negative effects alcohol has on teens physically and emotionally, one can conclude the legal drinking age should not be lowered.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

A national drinking age of twenty-one is respectable and fair to all. Alcohol, while it may be fun to drink, is a terrible substance can only lead to negative consequences. With heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, and numerous cancers directly linked to drinking, having our children exposed to it young is the last thing that needs to happen under American’s

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722 Words | 3 Pages

To demonstrate this point, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation found that though several European countries lowered the legal drinking age, the percentage of teen intoxication in the United States is equal or lower than that of European teens. As a further illustration, with access to alcohol, this tactic will only encourage teens to drink more. In brief, there is little evidence to show that giving teens the right to drink alcohol will make them more responsible; in fact, the opposite seems to be

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893 Words | 4 Pages

Could you imagine a 45 year old alcoholic and gang leader sitting alongside a fresh 18 year old at a bar? Today, it may seem ludicrous but soon this situation may become reality due to the support for lowering the legal age of recreational alcohol consumption from 21 to 18. At 18 years old, teens are hardly able to manage a grocery list and safely control vehicles such as cars, motorcycles etc. Therefore, expecting them to limit their consumption to what is considered appropriate while abiding by laws previously implemented, such as the policy of not drinking and driving is prone to be a precursor to a life of alcoholism and perpetual failure to meet requirements. Medical professionals can validate that drinking at 18 has a much more profound impact on an individual compared to drinking at the age of 21, both physically and mentally.

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Among all the countries in the world, the United States of America is one of the few countries that requires people to be twenty-one years old before legally being allowed to drink. Due to the fact that a majority of countries require citizens to be eighteen before drinking, there is a bit of controversy across the states as to whether the drinking age should be lowered to match the majority of the world. But what good is lowering the drinking age in the united states when the drinking culture has not changed and will not change simply because the law does? Before any discussion of the drinking age can even be hand, let us look at how we can influence teen drinking culture.

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With all this evidence in mind, we can conclude the danger of underage drinking. Some possible solutions are having more parents’ involvement in their children's lives to influence their decision on alcohol, increase alcohol prices, give huge fines to people allowing underage drinking, or creating anti-alcohol advertising to help children to realize that drinking is not cool at all. Nevertheless, the best solution is parent involvement, because the other solutions will take awhile to accomplish, but parents can talk to their children in any moment about the danger of under age drinking. These parents “are more likely going to influence their children's decisions well into adolescence and beyond”, about whether and how to drink, “decisions that can have lifelong consequences”

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755 Words | 4 Pages

In Europe, children learn from a young age how to drink responsibly, while teens in America think of alcohol as something to be had in copious amounts (Minton) 72 percent of graduating high-school seniors have consumed

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