Drinking Accomplishments

The legal drinking age in the United States is the only age that is above 19 years of age. Everywhere else in the world the age is 19 and under and some countries don’t even have a drinking age. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because it will help all the problems that come with underage drinking. There is a numerous amount of reasons to change the drinking age to 18 and there are also many opposing thoughts on it as well. Three reasons to lower the drinking age in the US is to stop all of the illegal issues involved with underage drinking, Stop or cut down on the overuse of alcohol and drugs and the changing of adulthood when you turn the age

As the website tells us, MADD was started in 1980 by a group of women in California that were outraged after the death of a teenage girl by a repeat-offender drunk driver. These women banned together to build an organization that would sweep the nation. By the end of the first year there were eleven different chapters in four different states and by the end of the next year, there were seventy MADD chapters that were operating. Now, that this organization has been around for about twenty years, there are more then six hundred chapters throughout the nation (MADD Homepage).

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

“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college

In 1980 after Candy Lightner, a mother of a thirteen-year-old girl was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver, she was galvanized by the tragedy and founded of the organization MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). MADD lobbied for the law after many deaths of children in result of drunk driving, and activist who protested against the organization was accused of promoting drunk driving. Since then, they are still to this day fighting to keep the uniform minimum drinking age at 21.

These organizations include but are not limited to, the Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the National Youth Rights Association.The non for profit organization called druglibrary states on their website, “By the greatest majority of indicators, the biggest drops in alcohol consumption and alcohol problems actually came before national prohibition went into effect.” (May 1, 2016) This sheds some light onto the drinking age law’s results by revealing that they were not as successful as they are often taken to be. We could have probably had the same or better results by never enacting the

Bonar, Erin E., Kathleen M. Young, Erica Hoffman, Shinakee Gumber, Jeremy P. Cummings, Michelle Pavlick, and Harold Rosenberg. "Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of University Students’ Definitions of Binge Drinking." Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of University Students’ Definitions of Binge Drinking 26.2 (2011): 187-93. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.

Most countries around the world have adopted MLDA laws for the purchase and /or possession of alcohol as a protective policy for the youth. Scientific evidence indicates that the lower the drinking age, the earlier the youth begin to decrease alcohol (at least in the United States). MLDA laws are vital components of any effort to control the production, marketing, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages (Philip, 528). Several studies have indicated that more accidents occurred as a result of lower drinking age. As a result there has been advocacy for restoring MLDA to 21. Due to such advocacy campaigns, 16 states increased their MLDA between September 1976 and January 1983. The US government also lowered this age to 21 too.

The Mothers Against Drunk Driving called on congress along with Senator Frank Lautenberg, House Public Works and Transportation Committee Chairman Kim Howard, Congressman Michael Barnes, then-Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole, Illinois Secretary of State Jim Edgar and representatives of the health and safety community to erase the blood borders between the states with differing ages by setting the nation’s minimum legal drinking age to 21. Therefore, “In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, NMDAA” (“Minimum Drinking Age” 12-13). The creation of this act raised the drinking age to what it is in United States of America today, 21 years old. Not only has this gotten rid of the patchwork of different states with differing

Elizabeth Cochran, better known under her pen name, Nellie Bly, was an American journalist born in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania on May 5th, 1864. She gained fame through her investigative journalism and began working for the New York World in 1887. Her first assignment, an expose on a local asylum, is covered by J.D. Ryznar in an episode of the Comedy Central TV series, Drunk History. While the facts given in Drunk History don’t precisely line up with the facts from outside sources, the story conveyed is entertaining and accurate enough to be a valuable resource for exposing viewers to history.

Lowering the drinking age will result in life and death consequences. By keeping the drinking age at 21, the rate of fatalities for drinking and driving decrease drastically. During the short period during the late 1980’s when the drinking age was lowered to 18, the number of fatal car crashes involving young adults who were under the influence dropped from 61% to 31% (Wil Fulton). By bringing the age down to 18-years-old, alcohol would be more accessible to the lower age group. For example, an 18 year old, who is still in high school, is more likely to sell alcohol to a 16 year old than a 21 year old, who is away at college. In recent studies, researchers found that 77% of the population are opposed to lowering the drinking age to 18 (Brandon Griggs). MADD is supported by influential government companies such as the American Medical Association, National Transportation Safety Board, National Safety Council, International Association Chiefs of Police, Governor's Highway Safety Association, Surgeon General of the United States, and U.S. Transportation Secretary to name a few (John H. Barnhill, PHD). Overall, young teenagers lack the proper wisdom collected to make right judgments about alcohol. The 3 years between the age 18 and 21 are filled with change and responsibilities, making one more suitable to make appropriate

Alcohol use began in as early as 1587 when drinking alcohol became a safer alternative to drinking polluted water by the pilgrims in Colonial America. Although alcohol consumption was safer than water, it came with terrible consequences. The use of alcohol made its debut around the world and in the 1650’s different colonies disciplined any person that became drunk with several different offenses and punishments. By the 1800’s alcohol consumption was at its all-time high. It wasn’t until 1984 that the first legal drinking age was set to twenty-one when MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, gained their popularity after a thirteen-year-old girl was killed by a drunk driver. With the help of the United States Congress, MADD created the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The goal of MADD was to have more developed consumers of alcohol so that the number of DUI’s would decrease. This act introduced a penalty of ten percent of the federal highway dollars for states that didn't raise the minimum legal age to twenty-one for possessing and purchasing alcohol. By the year 1987, every state ratified a drinking age of twenty-one. (Staff, ProQuest). The purpose behind the law is to prevent minors from coming in contact with dangers related to alcohol such as alcohol poisoning, interrupting brain development, and drunk driving incidents. In 2017, all fifty states of America continue to maintain the legal drinking age set in 1987 despite all the

Main Point 1: In response to the drunk driving epidemic, which was brought to attention by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), President Ronald Reagan passed the Minimum Drinking Age Act in July of 1984.

to more people to stop drinking completely. This movement was also influential in passing laws that prohibit the sale of Alcohol in many

On May 3rd, 1980, Candace Lightner’s daughter died in California because of an irresponsible drunk driver. Clarence William Busch,the guy who killed her received little jail time even though it was his fifth offense in four years. She took a stand because she stood up against drunk driving and helped change drinking laws. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) have changed the legal drinking age to 21 and the blood alcohol content level to 0.08 percent. MADD helped change the laws by going to former president Ronald Reagan, he decided to signed a law named the Uniform Drinking Age Act. The act forced all states to change their drinking age to 21 within five years.