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Pros of raising the drinking age
Pros of raising the drinking age
Lowering the drinking age cons and pros
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Pros of raising the drinking age
Pros of raising the drinking age
Lowering the drinking age cons and pros
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the other hand Gordon, John Steele says, “In H. L. Menken’s words, that “somebody somewhere may be happy”—was to cut down on drunk driving. And that has happened in the last three decades. But this good development did not come about because of this law. Instead, it came about because of, 1) a lowering of the standard for impaired driving from a blood alcohol level of .1 percent to .08, 2) greatly increased penalties for drunk driving (in 42 states today, the first conviction for drunk driving results in a suspension of one’s driver’s license) and, 3) a lower per capita consumption of alcohol (the three-martini lunch is, today, largely ancient history)”. This author defends his point of view on the grounds that increasing the age
Throughout human history, there has been many different problems that people have faced and conquered. Alcoholism is an issue that still continues to give trouble to its victims today. The availability of alcohol is a key factor in the consistent increase of alcoholism cases. The only limitation to buying alcohol it is being the age of twenty-one. Even then, teens and young adults still manage to get their hands on alcohol frequently.
When the government decided to lower their drinking age from 20 to 18 years old in 1999, they correctly predicted that there would not be an increase in alcohol abuse because many teenagers already drank alcohol they obtained illegally from adults (ICAP, 2002.) This supports the philosophy that it is better and healthier to allow young people to drink at a lower age so that their habits can be controlled, and that this can be done without increasing dangerous behavior. Statistics from around the world also suggest that a decreased legal drinking age creates healthier drinkers in the long run. A study on the percentage of people older than 15 years old with an alcohol use disorder reveals that 5.48% of Americans are affected, compared to 1.07% of people in Spain and 0.5% of people in Italy (WHO, 2004). Analyzing this data shows that the rate of alcoholism is significantly lower in countries including Spain and Italy where the drinking age is lower, likely because citizens drink responsibly throughout their entire lives.
“ Though the per capita consumption of alcohol in France, Spain and Portugal is higher than in the United States, the rate of alcoholism and alcohol abuse is lower. A glass of wine at dinner is normal practice,” she says. “Banning drinking by young people marks it a badge of adulthood--a tantalizing forbidden fruit” (Whalen). She stresses the fact that if teenagers are taught early on, they will be well educated in knowing the dangers of violently drinking.
There is a large debate throughout the country about what the legal drinking age for each state should be. Currently, every state in the United States has a legal drinking age of 21. This has not always been the case. Between 1970-1976, it was made legal for states to choose their own legal drinking age. 30 states lowered their drinking ages ranging from 18-21 but this law was ultimately overruled and the legal nationwide age became 21 with the enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984(18 interesting pro, 2015).
As a country, we need to redefine the culture surrounding alcohol so that we can create a society which breeds knowledge and understanding about alcohol. People are going to drink and get drunk no matter what the legal age is. Our only hope as a society is to address what it means to us to have “socially responsible drinking.” The next task is to figure out how to teach it. By generating informed citizens and exposing them to this knowledge at an early age, we can aim to demystify the term “drinking responsibly.”
The legal drinking age has it harder for young adults to get their hands on alcohol, but that hasn’t stopped them from finding a way to get a hold of it. The legal drinking age has been a problem since its start in 1984 when congresses passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. With this act, teens weren’t allowed to purchase alcohol or drink in public, but now teens have a way to find and drink without getting caught. This could mean that teens get older people to buy drinks from them, or that they buy alcohol from a shady store that doesn’t need a ID to purchase things. This begs the question, is alcohol really bad for teens.
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.
Currently in California as well as in my other states the legal drinking age is 21. As some may know this has been a very controversial issue because of the harm alcohol has on the human body, but don’t you think you should have the option to take the risk or not, because i certainly do. Many countries have different legal ages like 16-20, others don’t have any at all for example, Cuba,Ghana, Montenegro, Morocco, Norway. Some newspapers, news channels and other news sources have all at some point touch this subject and have their own beliefs as well as opinions.
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.
Drunk driving is a serious problem that continues to take thousands of deaths each year. Too many innocent lives been lost to drunk driving. A death from drunk driving does not only affect the victim but it affects everyone around them such as family and friends. One night, one drink, one mistake is all it takes for drunk driving to take its toll. There are many solutions to prevent drunk driving, but they will only work if we put them into play.
A poll taken on July 2014 asked the public opinion of US adults for lowering the US legal drinking age from 21 to 18. Approximately 74% of the people opposed the idea, whereas roughly 25% of the people supported the idea ("Public Opinion" 1). The statistics indicate satisfaction among the majority of the people; however, with the current laws many issues arise that must be addressed concerning alcohol use. For starters, studies show an increase of dangerous drinking habits among young adults (Hall 2). In addition, the enforcement of the drinking laws and education on alcohol is insubstantial (Moyse, Fonder 3).
In fact, the law may increase the amount of eighteen to twenty year olds who do drink. It has been shown that, especially in college-age students, there is a tendency to not do what they are told, on the contrary, they will do the exact opposite. The problem with the drinking age being twenty-one is that some students drink purely out of defiance). The number of fatalities is down in all age groups, not just teenagers, and cars driven now are much safer than the cars that were being driven in the early 1980’s, and teenagers are much safer drivers, which can be attributed to the decreased amount of fatalities. Also, in other countries that have lower drinking ages, the number of fatalities has
Today in the United States about 4,358 people under the age of 21 years old die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and even drowning. More than 190,000 people under the age of 21 visited an emergency room for alcohol related reasons in 2008 alone. Alcohol related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and non-fatally injure someone every two minutes. That’s a lot of people gone because they wanted to go out and party and not think about the consequences ahead. In this essay I’m gonna give you information to why Underage Drinking is very very bad for you.
“ [The drinking age] is unfavorable because it forces youth to consume alcohol in unsupervised places that are risky and consumption may be abused.” The idea is, if the drinking age is lowered, youth will be able to drink in open, public places that can be supervised by others. By being public, it would decrease the risky behavior seen with alcohol in private, unsupervised settings. Pomata also asserts, “The age restriction inspires undesirable activities just as the National Prohibition Act did.” Some undesirable activities that are associated with underage drinking include the making and distributing of fake ID’s.