“I lay there on the pavement, Mom. I hear the policeman say the other guy was drunk, Mom. Now I am the one to pay. There is blood all around me, Mom. Most of it is mine. I hear the paramedics say, Mom, I will die in a short time.” This is a poem is about a girl who went to a party and stayed sober because her mom wanted to keep her safe and alive. She listened to her mom, but as she was leaving she was hit by another person who decided to drink. The other person lived, while she will die. This is not necessarily based on a real story, but it happens all of the time in real life when underage kids decide to drink at parties. According to ProCon.org, after the Prohibition was repealed, each state could set their own consumption laws for alcohol. …show more content…
According to William Dejong of Boston University, there is a trickle-down effect that will cause even younger kids to drink if the drinking age is lowered to 18. It is a common thing to have 15-17-year-olds being friends with 18-20-year-olds. If those 18-20-year-olds can legally purchase alcohol, they will be drinking with and around their younger friends that are still under the legal age. Right now, this is happening with 21+-year-olds giving alcohol to 18-20-year-olds. If the drinking age is lowered, it will just increase the amount of illegal and unsupervised drinking going on in the nation. Also, lowering the drinking age will cause more car accidents and other types of accidents with younger teenagers. Teenagers will get into cars with their friends to go places, and this can end up badly if the driver has been drinking. Some teenagers can not drive so if they get into cars with their 18-year-old friends who can drink, car accidents are bound to happen. Not many 15-16-year-olds are friends with 21+-year-olds, so this is not as big of a problem currently. Drinking and hanging out with friends who are only a couple years older causes even younger teenagers to drink, which is why the drinking age should not be
According to the CDC, underage drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths per year, but why? Most teenagers are uneducated and unsupervised when it comes to consuming alcohol and its effects. If one doesn’t teach about the effects of alcohol, then it could become disastrous for not only the user but others too. Most teenagers may only know a fraction of the effects based on experience or from seeing it in movies or television. I believe that if the drinking age was lowered, teenagers could be better educated to drink more
“She’s not waking up”, I say as I look at my Mama whimpering in the corner. So I listen to her heart beat there is nothing. “She’s dead Mama ”, I whimper. I know why she passed its all my fault I said she didn’t have a mask for her
Robert Voas states teen pregnancy, sexual assaults, and crime rates have increased due to underage drinking. Alcohol consumption at a college age leads to 600,000 physical assaults and 70,000 sexual assaults yearly according to a study (464). Joyce Alcantara claims if the age were lowered back to eighteen then it would put younger teens at risk (468). People tend to have friends around their same age. So, if eighteen year olds were allowed to drink then their friends which are roughly around the age of sixteen or seventeen would likely have an alcoholic drink in their hand as well.
Although it is a law commonly evaded; it prevents young people from car accidents and alcohol abuse or dependence. In the article is acknowledged that “more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence”; a rate that would be highly increased if the drinking age is reduced. On top of that, it is worth considering the magnitude in which car accidents have dropped since the drinking age was lowered. The organization Mother Against Drunk Driving (MADD) CEO Chuck Hurley said “Nearly all peer- reviewed studies looking at the change showed raising the driving age reduced drunk-driving deaths.” It is undeniable that lowering the drinking age would generate an already managed issue in regards alcohol and its relation to car
“If the legal age were lowered in the US it would have to come with much more education in this area, not just the shock-value of Every 15 Minutes” said Ulrike Skillman, math teacher at Saugus. Skillman suggests the lowering of the drinking age will have to come with more alcohol education and that is the exact purpose of a “drinking license.” Which would allow 18 year olds to consume alcohol, with strict regulations, then take classes to officially receive a “drinking license” at 21 years old. The license would replicate a driver’s license, but be geared toward consuming alcohol.
There has been research that shows the negative effects of lowering the drinking age that goes way beyond drunken incidents. The February 2013 issue of “Mental Health Weekly Digest” showed the findings of Dr. Andrew D. Plunk of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It is quite obvious that the most abused drug by adolescents is alcohol, and it can have lasting effects. "Furthermore, human brain development continues into the third decade of life, raising concern that heavy adolescent alcohol misuse may produce cognitive deficits and impairment in memory and attention” Plank proclaimed. “Numerous studies have linked binge drinking to poorer academic performance (Mental Health Weekly Digest).”
But back to the matter lowering the drinking age would also produce a lot of revenue for the government and local gas stations and beer companies across the globe and it would make all of the young adults across this great country we can call home more mature in the process even though I am very mature. Particularly worrisome among adolescents is the high prevalence of binge drinking... Underage drinkers consume, on average, 4 to 5 drinks per occasion about 5 times a month. By comparison, drinkers age 26 and older consume 2 to 3 drinks per occasion, about 9 times a month. Underage drinking is a leading contributor to death from injuries, which are the main cause of death for people under age 21.
Over the years, there have been debates about lowering the drinking age in the United States to eighteen. People argue that if a person can fight in the military or vote in elections, then he or she should be allowed the right to drink alcohol. Others feel that it is not wise to lower the legal drinking age because the results would be dangerous. Although there are arguments for lowering the drinking age, there is also an abundance of research that proves lowering the drinking age would be destructive. The legal drinking age should not be lowered to eighteen because it will give high school and even middle school students greater access to alcohol, interfere with brain development, adult rights begin at twenty-one, and increase traffic accidents among the youth.
When the Minimum Legal Drinking Age changed to 21 years old in 1976, there was a decrease in fatal car accidents which saved approximately 21,887 lives (Alcohol Policy MD). Many lives were saved because there were less young drinkers and less people driving under the influence of alcohol. If it were possible to save lives, why wouldn’t you want to do that? An argument is made that if teenagers are allowed the responsibility to drive when they are 16 years old why can’t they drink at an earlier age? This is simply because Alcohol can put people in danger.
To address this drinking age should not be lowered to 19. Many people in families think that drinking can harm their life. It’s people jobs to take care of your health and live a happy life with families and friends. Many parents take care of their children and evidence is that an average family spent $24,164 for paying for college and kids don’t know that. People of this world it is more important that you can be more efficient that you can be of not drinking.
all dropped to the age 18 or 19 . Thus, alcohol should stay away from young adults. In summary, the drinking age needs to be changed. First of all, health organizations are more involved with raising the drinking age, second of all drunk driving happens more frequently nowadays, and finally young adults and teens should not be drinking under the ages of 21.
Lowering the drinking age: risky or safe? When teenagers turn 18, they are told that they are adults and are sent into the world. They go to college, get a job, marry or join the military. They do grown-up things like vote, pay taxes and become parents, but they can 't go to the bar for a beer.
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.
Frat parties, for example, serve booze, often, if not always, without the supervision of a responsible adult (aka an adult over the age of 21). Lowering the drinking age to 18 can be beneficial in that responsible drinking can be taught before the student turns 21. My favorite analogy, by Huffington Post writer, Elizabeth Glass Geltman, says, “We don’t have students teach each other how to drive, why is alcohol different?” In her article on Huffington Post, she talks about her college experience in the 70s and early 80s, where the legal drinking age in the US was 18. She talks about how drinking was legal for most students in her senior year of high school and in college, and that beer was commonly served at dances, proms, graduation events, etc.
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.