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Why The Drinking Age Should Stay Twenty Essay

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Why the Alcohol Age Limit Should Stay Twenty-One Rather Than Eighteen In the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality found that, “Slightly more than half of Americans aged 12 or older reported being current drinkers of alcohol.” Recently unsupervised, underage drinking has become a major problem all around the world, but especially in the United States. The law supporting the legal drinking age of twenty-one should stay as is, because it protects young people from injuring themselves or others physically, helps maintain a healthy future for people, and keeps underage people from getting into uncomfortable situations they shouldn’t be in. Underage drinking …show more content…

For example, someone has to be twenty-one to buy a gun, gamble, or adopt a child and twenty-five to rent a car, this goes to show that as people age their maturity level also becomes greater. As many eighteen year olds are still in high school, or just starting out in college, with lots of new experiences and a magnificent amount of influences and pressure to do stupid things, they aren’t going to be as responsible as they would be when they are older with less pressure to fit in. A lower drinking age can lead to young adults drinking an excessive amount in a short period of time, which can lead to them not thinking clearly and doing more dangerous drugs that are against the law. This will affect them forever, as they could get caught by the police and have the crime put on their public record for the rest of their life. When going to get jobs later in life having committed crimes does not look good on any application. Another problem with an alcohol drinking age of eighteen includes the fact that it has negative effects on health problems. Starting to drink at an early age can mess with an adult's brain development. The effects alcohol can have on underage drinkers include problems leading to depression, addiction, memory loss, suicide, and violent outbursts. In order to help increase the success of our future generations the law that prohibits

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21 and older: not younger Image being called at midnight being told your child died in a car accident because of a drunk driver. As a matter of fact, an estimated of 5,000 people under the age of twenty-one die every year from drunk driving (NIH). Why would we allow more younger groups of people to drink, if they have already shown that they are irresponsible? The drinking age should not be lowered to eighteen because it encourages reckless behavior, causes developmental issues, and teenagers are not mature enough.

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Currently the legal drinking age is 21, and there have been many controversial debates on whether to lower the age or not. However, there are both pros and cons to this topic. One of the biggest argument in favor of lowering the drinking age is that in United States, an eighteen years old can do so many things then why not drinking. For example, an 18 years old can vote for the presidential elections, have license to drive, pay taxes, marr, can be a legal guardian, own a gun, fight in a war, and can be a governor of a state. When an 18 years old is allowed to do all of the following above then why not allowed to be drinking.

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Lowering it would take the “cool” and “illegal ” parts out of drinking, and the new law would actually be enforceable. Alcohol legal age at 21 instead of 18 creates a cyclical problem. It makes it moredifficult to get alcohol, which makes it even better for teens to get their hands on it. The inexperience and enjoyment of alcohol causes teens to lose control and drink unsafely. Ruth C. Engs, a Professor, Applied Health Sciences at the Indiana

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However, people at age eighteen have not yet been allowed all their privileges. The age to buy a gun is twenty-one, and the age to rent a condo when going on vacation is almost always twenty-five. It’s not until twenty-five that people acquire all their rights, and because the ages are scattered, they decided to make the drinking age twenty-one. President Reagan signed a law that made the drinking age go from eighteen to twenty-one back in 1984. Between 1982 and 2007, the rate of alcohol related car accidents among eighteen to twenty year olds has dropped sixty percent, yet the related car accidents between twenty-one to twenty-four year olds has only dropped forty-four percent.

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Minimum Legal Drinking Age in US too high? In the US, the Minimum Legal Drinking Age twenty-one has been a highly debated matter for years, because of various contributing factors. Whereas several individual states claim that the beginning of adulthood, at eighteen, is an appropriate age for alcohol consumption, one must also take in account that underage drinking increases the fatality rate of alcohol-related accidents and criminal behavior, but also affects the brain of a developing adolescent making the group more likely to become alcoholists.

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Although alcohol at an early age can teach a teen to be more responsible. Changing the drinking age from 21 to 18 might have a positive influence on teens, for example, there are many countries that have a lower age limit to drink alcohol. There are countries like Canada, Mexico, and many more that have a drinking age of 18-19 years old. Many people believe that 18 is the age of adulthood so, it is ok for a teen to drink and make their own decisions. People argue that, why is the age limit to buy cigarettes is 18 and to buy alcohol is 21.

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One con of lowering the drinking age is that it may interfere with the development of an young individual’s brain. Especially the frontal lobes, emotional regulation, planning, and also organization. When a young adult consumes alcohol it increases the potential of having chronic issues, like greater vulnerability to addiction. It also plays a role in depression, violence, and reduced decision making ability (Ives2008).

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the lack of education that is being delivered to individuals is disappointing to know that the information is there but not fully taught. not only that but our economy would suffer for the most part through deaths, for example driving under the influence would most likely raise taxes for tax payers to build for a safer environment. With a drinking age of eighteen the increase of the amount of money made from the purchase of alcohol will be outweighed by the other negative costs it will lead too. Secondly the current laws today, does the age when older individuals start drinking make sense.

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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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Many people who start drinking at 21 or even under 21 have poor drinking practices. Many of these people who drink do not know their drinking limit and are prone to getting acholol poisoning and even dying from overdrinking. If we lowered the drinking age to 18 it would create safer drinking practices by allowing teens to learn their alcohol tolerance early and with family. This is a practice that is popular in Europe and is very successful. CNN states “parents serve small amounts of wine to their children at family meals.

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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.

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Eighteen is the year where all people in the United States earn most of their rights and the right to purchase and consume alcohol should be added to this list. If the drinking age was lowered to eighteen, this would also lower the amount of sixteen and seventeen year olds drinking. After a person gets their license, the only thing they must find is someone to buy their alcohol and they are on their way to underage drinking. If the drinking age was lowered to eighteen, sixteen and seventeen year olds would be more willing to wait until the legal age to drink. With the drinking age at twenty-one, sixteen and seventeen year olds don’t have the patience to wait five years to begin drinking.

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has not always been twenty-one. In the late 60’s and early 70’s many of the states in the U.S. had their laws set to where the legal drinking age was eighteen (U.S. Dept. of HHS n. pag.). During this time where some stated adopted the legal drinking age of eighteen the death in alcohol-related incidents increase in young adults. Forcing some states in the early 80’s to reconsider the legal drinking age to be changed back to twenty-one. By 1984, congress stepped in to help lower the rate of alcohol-related incidents.

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When it comes to alcohol they are still just kids. Where’s the fairness in the age being 21 and not 18? Why is 21 the "magical" age that makes one intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? Surely, some adults abuse alcohol and some teenagers would be perfectly able to drink responsibly. Accidents will happen no matter what age you start drinking it.

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People will oppose to this law, but at the age of 18 an adolescent's brain is not fully developed yet. Underage drinking is a common action in today’s society. What kids do not know is the effect that underage drinking has on their brain. Since the brain is not fully developed at the age of 18, drinking

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