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The Drinking Age Should Be 18 Essay

946 Words4 Pages

Laws permitting eighteen year olds to drink have always been a controversial topic within our government for quite some time now. Laws officially stated that you must be twenty one years old in order to drink, but in the early 1970’s that changed. Congress then made the laws state that you only need to be eighteen years old in order to drink/purchase alcohol. Then once again in 1984, congress changed the law back to twenty one years old. The main reason for change in 1984 was the amount of drunk driving our country was experiencing (Wagenaar. Para. 3-4). Since 1984, that number has decreased quite insanely, making a change of laws back to eighteen in the future very slim. Even though eighteen year olds are adults in every way except legally …show more content…

Alcohol can even have worse effects over time such as cancer and disease. But alcohol’s effect on your body are far less threatening than those of tobacco products. Teens are legally able to purchase any type of tobacco at the age of eighteen, how can it make sense to congress that they will allow teens to start partaking in something that can affect them so much more than alcohol. “Most of the college students who chose to drink are binge drinking, according to a study out of harvard. Seven out of ten students are consuming five or more drinks in a row.” (Christensen. Para 13.) acknowledges Jen Christensen at CNN. Binge drinking can cause you to choke on your own vomit, stop your breathing and or your heart, and in long term it can damage your memory. Teens can do all these much worse things the first minute of their eighteenth birthday, but statistically showing its much safer to keep them away from alcohol while we can. When teens around the age of eighteen decide to drink, they really aren't drinking to actually enjoy alcohol. Nine times out of ten they're out with friends and want to feel a bit of a buzz or a light drunk, so they decide to drink and when one doesn't feel like it was enough then they have another and it can go on and

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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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For about 40 years ago there have been discrepancies about the drinking age. In the late 60s and early 70s exactly 29 states lowered their drinking age. They did this because they wanted to at least match the enlistment and voting age. Which was and is 18. This resulted in drunk-driving accidents.

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Under the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act [23 U.S.C 158], persons under 21 years of age are prohibited from purchasing alcohol in all 50 US states. although there are exceptions in certain states when alcohol is consumed at home, under adult supervision, and for medical purposes, the drinking age still stands. There are moves to lower the drinking age, however. many proponents think 18 is a good number, considering that teenagers at this age are practically considered adults. in fact, they think it is hilarious that an 18 year old can marry, vote, join the military or buy guns, but can 't buy or drink alcohol, which is probably the easiest thing anyone can do, as opposed to getting married and choosing the next president.

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Honestly there are numerous ways the government changed the legal age of drinking from 18-21. Changing the drinking age has it really slowed down the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol related crimes and traffic accidents have gone down in recent years, but that has nothing to do with raising the legal drinking school. Studies show that although drivers under the age of 21 drink more they also drive less; an average teen will not receive a standardized license until their early

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In these past few years more and more people are leaning towards lowering the drinking age, yet there are still many that disagree and want the age of twenty one to remain the legal age to consume alcohol. In 1984 the United States Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that changed the drinking age from eighteen to twenty one. Many of the states did not agree with this act and planned on keeping their legal drinking age at 18, until congress passed the Federal Aid Highway act, which states that if the drinking age in that state was under twenty one, they would lose almost 10 percent of their funding for highway public transportation. Throughout the United States thousands of citizens consume alcohol. Even if the legal drinking age is 21, minors will still consume it illegally.

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This law changed to 21 because all states would “lose a certain percentage of federal highway dollars” (“Frequently Asked”). Not only that but the rates of excessive drinking went up, along with drunk driving. Driving alone is hard enough, especially if the person is a new driver, but add alcohol and there is a very deadly mix. Being able to legally drink at the age of “21 decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for 18- to 20-year-olds by 13% and saved approximately 27,052 lives from 1975-2008” (“Should the Drinking Age”). Since there have been less drunk driving accidents when the minimum age for drinking changed to 21, it is a safer environment if the drinking age is left at 21 instead of being

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When a child turns 18, they open to many more responsibilities than any other teenage birthday. When a child is 18, they are not considered a kid anymore, they are adults. One of the many perks of being 18 is kids can vote and they can enlist in the army. In 1984, President Reagan had signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, and this required all states to set the drinking age to 21. If an 18 year old can enlist in the army, and put their life at risk they should be able to drink alcohol at 18.

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Now a days alcohol is one of number one drugs picked by teenagers. Even though most teens drink alcohol to feel socially ease, calm nerves or stress, or simply just to drink; their putting their life at risk. In others words, teens should not be permitted to binge drink in any kind of situation. Underage drinking causes your body to have a long term negative effects. According to the article “Teen Drinking Ups Risk for Liver Disease Later,” there are 493,000 deaths worldwide yearly due to alcohol-related liver cirrhosis.

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