Alcohol, Good Or Evil?

In 1984 Ronald Reagan proposed a new law that declared that the legal drinking age must raised up to 21 instead of the age of 18. The law was forced upon the states by threatening them by stating that the government will reduce their highway funding until the states passed the law. Of course all the states eventually change their legal drinking age to 21. Some critics believe that this law’s results have been very successful, however the law possesses many insecurities, but certain programs can be arranged to help educate teenagers on alcohol.

Prohibition had been tried from a lot of time as temperance movements, the movements that tried to stop the alcohol consumption started in the latest 1700’s. The first group that wanted temperance was made by a group of Litchfield, Connecticut in 1789. Evangelical Protestants mainly formed these groups; however, they wanted moderation for preventing drunkenness. The ones who were most affected by

For many years, the debate about the legal drinking age has been prolonged. In the mid-1930s, under the 21st Amendment, the federal law to drink was age 21; however, states were given the option to set their own legal drinking age. During the 1970s, 30 states had a legal drinking age ranging from 18 to 20. Ten years in, the death toll rose from 10 to 40 percent in states that had lowered their drinking age (Barnhill, 2014). After many observations of traffic accidents involving drunk teenagers, the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving or (MADD) acted by educating the public of the dangers of drunk driving, and to speak for stronger drunk driving laws. This received so much publicity that President Reagan signed a bill into

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 As a result, the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933.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

First, the drinking age used to be 18 in some states. Many of today's parents were legally allowed to drink at 18. Today, teenagers are faced with more responsibility and are treated more like adults

On July 1, 1971 the 26th amendment was passed which lowered the minimum age to vote from twenty one to eighteen years old. Shortly after the amendment was passed twenty nine states across America started lowering the drinking age from 21 to either 18,19, or 20 years old. This new freedom for young adults only lasted for a brief time by 1984 the Uniform Drinking Age Act was passed. The Uniform Drinking Age Act forced states to change the drinking age back to twenty one years old; by reducing the federal transportation funding, for each state that did not have a minimum drinking age of21. This act has caused controversy for years, there even is group of 136 college presidents called Amethyst Initiative that support a lower minimum legal

Upon turning eighteen you are considered to be legal adult and receive all of the responsibilities that accompany the title. At the age of eighteen year olds you receive and are expected to use the rights and responsibilities to vote, serve on juries, get married, sign contracts, join the military--which includes taking on the responsibilities of life and death--and be prosecuted as an adults in the court of law along with many other things. In 1984, the national government raised the drinking age from 18 to 21. Mothers Against Drunk Driving was a key contributing organization that influenced the change in the minimum drinking age. While there are arguments for both sides, it is said that if the national minimum legal drinking age is

I. Introduction: Starting in 1970 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18. Another 8 reduced it to 19 or 20. However, these states noticed increases in alcohol-related fatalities among teenagers and young adults. As a result, of the 29 states that had lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By 1984, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic liquor. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. The states who raised it were given highway funding by the

Over the past twenty years the minimum legal drinking age has been twenty-one in all US states, but that has not stopped citizens of the United Sates from attempting to lower the age. Following the end of prohibition in the United Sates during the Great Depression, all states agreed on a set of twenty-one to be the legal drinking age. For almost forty years there was no change in the drinking age until a decrease in the age for voting occurred. This led to the gradual decrease of the minimum legal drinking age to somewhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty among twenty-one states. Recent data collected by Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson, both of which obtain either a

Towards the end of the 1970 the President and the government were concerned about the legal drinking age. When the President, Ronald Reagan noticed the ridiculous amount of public health and safety issues he passed an act. For instance in 1982, President Ronald Reagan confronted a Presidential Commission officer on Drunk Driving because of the research that he found on younger drinking ages that had increased alcohol-related highway deaths. It was about thirty years ago when President Reagan passed a law in 1984, called the minimum drinking age act. The minimum drinking age act required America’s states to raise the age to 21 for purchasing and having public possession of alcohol by October 1986. For each state that don’t follow this law

They also argue of the lowering the MLDA argue the teens have not yet reached an age where they can handle alcohol responsibly, and thus are more likely to harm or even kill themselves and others by drinking prior to 21. They contend the traffic fatalities decreased when MLDA increased. The repeal of alcohol prohibition by the 21st amendment on December 5, 1933 allowed each state to set its own alcohol consumption law.

Globally, many of the states hold the minimum drinking age laws have been initiated for decades and they have never been changed at all excepting one or two countries. One of the exceptions is the US. The minimum drinking age laws are much effective in the US. After the repeal of Prohibition in the US in 1993 the MLDA laws were established (David & Jon, 54). Very many countries at that time set the MLDA at the age of 21. Most countries lowered the drinking age from 21 to 18 in the year 1971 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. As a result of an increase in alcohol-related crashes which involved very many youths between the age of 18 and 21 many countries that lowered the drinking age to 18, returned to an MLDA of 21 years. The earlier

The United States’ minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of twenty one is almost a perfect example of a policy with unrealistic expectations and serious unintended consequences. The current policy that the United States has in effect criminalizes youth who consume alcohol at less than twenty one years of age. Young adults are going to drink under twenty one, so why shouldn’t the United States lower the MLDA to eighteen? Following Prohibition in 1933, many states made their MLDA twenty one. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, many states lowered it to eighteen to match the drafting age (Alcohol Policy MD). President Reagan passed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public

July 17, 1984. This day will forever be remembered as the day in history that president Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This act stated that all states must raise their minimum drinking age to 21. Individuals under the age of 21 would now be prohibited from purchasing or being in public possession of any alcoholic beverage. Though not every state was keen on this idea, they all jumped to raise the minimum drinking age due to the government threat that they would lose up to 10% of their federal highway funding if they ignored the request. However, since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was signed, much controversy has since arisen.

Eighteen years old, the age of adulthood in the United States, where one can legally participate in activities that one was unable to as a child. Well, almost everything. This unfortunately doesn’t include the right to decide whether to drink alcohol or not because the drinking age in the United States is twenty-one, not eighteen. The drinking age, as a matter of fact, used to be eighteen in some of the states back in the 1970s and prior to that. The new national drinking age limit was implemented in 1984. States had the option of choosing to follow this new law or keep their existing drinking age, but if the states did not abide by this new law, they would have ten percent of their highway funds annually condemned (“The 1984”). This was