Alcohol Consumption And Underage Drinking

On February 3, 2017, Tim Piazza, a sophomore here at Penn State, tragically lost his life at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house. This horrific event was a result of irresponsible consumption of alcohol and binge drinking. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Around the nation, countless young adults have lost their life due to the thoughtless consumption of alcohol. Unfortunately, the common census between the majority of the average day Americans is that the most effective way to make drinking safer for young adults is enforcing a minimum drinking age of twenty one. This law, as well as the common census, are a direct result from the efforts of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) more than thirty years ago (“Drinking Culture”). MADD’s objective and goal is quite understandable; they want the young adults of today’s world to be safe and not put themselves into dangerous situations with alcohol, but they doing more harm than good. (“The Problem”). Safety is the single objective from each side in this argument, but MADD’s flawed logic and ignorance to reality has formed a belief that results in an unsafe drinking culture, resulting in more deaths, such as the tragic passing of Tim Piazza, unless the drinking age is lowered to eighteen, as well as establishing an open dialogue about drinking itself.

It’s no doubt that alcohol has a major sway on today’s society across the board both culturally and globally. When we take a look into past history, we can see how alcohol has been the fundamental measures to religious, professional, and social concerns. It seems that no matter how far our history books go back, the United States has had a question about the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Through the years of Prohibition halting the sale, shipping, and ingestion of alcohol and the constitutional acts delegating who is accurately fit to drink. Today’s controversy is a lot less infringing on personal rights. It’s regarding whether the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. This has been a huge controversy geared exclusively towards college students due to the fact that alcohol consumption at universities is the definitive part of campus life even though the greater part of students are not legally permitted to drink. It is apparent that through the regularity and risks of binge drinking across universities and the high percentage of DUI and alcohol related fatal crashes, that something needs to shift in this country. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen would be an expedient and positive step in reducing binge drinking, nurturing the safe practice of drinking alcohol, and permitting those students of legal drinking age the chance to fully and sensibly make mature adult choices.

The Prohibition during the 1920s has been widely scrutinized and is often used as an example today to show how banning a specific substance after it has been in wide circulation is a wasted effort. Many historians, economists, and Americans have analyzed the complications during the Prohibition and have culminated their thoughts to provide an accurate and in depth analysis of what caused the Prohibition to fail. Similarly, experts have presented data that shows just how drastically each year differed from one another during the Prohibition. However, there are many factors that affected each individual year that ultimately culminated to not only a universal distaste for the Prohibition, but for a complete repeal of the ban on alcohol nearly ten years later. Although the Prohibition is widely considered a failure in the sense that it did not properly moderate the selling and drinking of alcohol, the basic idea upon which the Prohibition was founded can be used to moderate drinking in a different manner that may better society as a whole.

People acknowledge that the United States should lower the legal drinking age or keep it at twenty-one years of age. The cancellation of the alcohol Prohibition by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. Which allowed the states to make their own alcohol consumption laws. All of the states in the US have set there legal drinking age to twenty-one but there are some exceptions in states for consumption of alcohol at home, under adult supervision, and other reason falling in that category.I feel that the US should keep the drinking age at twenty-one years of age.

Society’s attitude towards the drinking age has been a major controversy in the United States. The attitudes regarding the drinking age have been based off statistics and society’s varying opinion. Alcohol is a toxic depressant that has a damaging effect on the human body. As a result, to prevent excessive alcoholic consumption, the ratification of the 18th amendment took place from 1919 to 1939. This established the Prohibition Act, which banned the transportation, manufacturing and selling of an alcoholic beverage. However, illegal production of alcohol continued to take place in secret. Gradually prohibition laws became difficult to enforce. As a result, the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933. In 1984, congress mandated a law which would raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 through the National Minimum Drinking Age. Reasoning for mandating an older drinking age, was to enhance public safety and promote good health. In 1988, all 50 states enforced the drinking age to 21. The concern for the consumption of alcohol have targeted teenagers and young adults

Prohibition was a time in American history where any type of alcohol consumption, production, and distribution was banned. The thirteen year, dry period finally came to an end because of the temptation and social urges alcohol pursues. Throughout these thirteen years, people corruptly consumed, produced, and distributed alcohol as if the regulations instituted by the government were suggestions. After the Prohibition laws were lifted in 1993, the drinking age was set at twenty one but was later lowered to eighteen because of the passage of the 26th amendment which lowered the voting age to eighteen. In order to combat drunk driving, The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed and stated that states must raise their drinking age to

Alcohol is America’s primary narcotic drug problem. When one hears of the word “prohibition”, images of the Great Gatsby-era 1920s and the eighteenth amendment most likely come to mind. It was, in fact, the political party so rightfully named the Prohibition Party who was behind the liquor ban movement.

We live in a nation that prides itself on being free, however a few Americans feel they do not have as much opportunity as they merit, such as the flexibility to drink lawfully at a more youthful age. For a considerable length of time, as far back as the times of Prohibition, truth be told, numerous legislators, scholastics, and guardians alike have occupied with the drinking age dispute regarding whether the lawful drinking age of twenty-one ought to be brought down to eighteen. I believe the lawful drinking age ought to be brought down to eighteen years old in light of the fact that at eight years old adolescent as a grown-up according to the law.

The drinking age in America has been changed several times since the start of the United States. At the time there were no restrictions on alcohol. One of the next key changes was during the prohibition in the 1930s. This was a time where alcohol was outlawed for everyone in the United States. This did not work because many people drank undercover and the law was difficult to enforce. The most recent, to the legal drinking age, was during the Vietnam war period. At the time, the age limit was set at twenty-one but was reduced so soldiers could drink legally (Daniloff). After the war, the age limit was increased again, since the government thought it was the right idea. This was the last major change to the drinking age so far.

Prior to 1920, each state established its own minimum legal drinking age. When the Eighteenth Amendment was passed on January 17, 1920, the era of prohibition began. While the Eighteenth Amendment was in effect, it was illegal in the Unites States to manufacture, distribute, and/or sell alcohol. Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933, when the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified. The states were

In the article “Underage Drinking” the author highlights the effects and dangers of consuming alcohol before it is legal. While it is true that “In most countries around the world where alcohol is legal, the legal drinking age is eighteen”, the author states that alcohol can still have more negative effects on those under the age of twenty one than adults. The author provides many statistics, such as “research showed a correlation between the lowered drinking age and increased car accidents” to back up these statements. It is clear that the author’s main goal in the article is to inform the public about the negative outcomes of underage drinking, but it seems that their ulterior motive is to persuade against it. This is obvious, as the author shows no positives or even opinions from the opposing side.

There have been many recent debates on the subject of the legal age to drink alcoholic beverages in the United States of America. Some otherwise intelligent people want to lower the legal drinking age to eighteen rather than keep it at twenty-one, the current federally mandated drinking age. In Time Magazine Mary Cary, author of Time to Lower the Drinking Age, puts forth the position that lowering the drinking age would actually be beneficial to society. Though lowering the drinking age to eighteen may lead to solutions to underage drinking, many other, more dangerous issues may arise from teenagers who begin to drink earlier in life; this is the greater matter that and it should not be overlooked on this issue.

Every day in the United States, almost 30 people die in motor vehicle accidents that are caused by or involve alcohol consumption (Naimi, 71). However, despite the cultural perception that young people and alcohol should not be mixed, there are other institutional forces that perhaps have illuminated the point that people as young as 18 should be allowed to drink and consume alcohol, and that the legal drinking age should be raised. However, simply because the US recognizes people who are 18 years of age as legal adults, and because legal adults are allowed to marry, vote, buy and smoke cigarettes, and register for the armed forces, does not mean that they should also be allowed to consume alcohol as well—as there current evidence that would

Laws surrounding alcohol use and consumption in the United States all stem from one major root: the Prohibition Era of the 1920s. The Prohibition Era lasted almost thirteen years and banned the production, the distribution, and the sale of alcohol. In 1933, the Prohibition Act was repealed and states designated their own legal drinking age. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Age act was passed and raised the drinking age in the United States to twenty-one. This law caused uproar in states that had declared the minimum drinking age to be eighteen. Alcohol consumption is a major factor in cultural and social matters and the National Minimum Drinking Age has affected everybody. This law is unjust

Without a doubt, the United States has been facing serious national problems with underage drinking. Depending on personal ideologies, some people might not agree that the current minimum drinking age of twenty-one is based on scientific facts rather then ideology of prohibitionism. For example, since 1975 over seventeen thousand lives have been saved since the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was changed to age twenty-one (Balkin 167). This shows that even over a short amount of time, a higher MLDA helps decrease the risk of teen suicides, accidents and overdose deaths. However, this widely debated topic has inevitably brought attention to the plethora of supporting and opposing viewpoints. The minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one