Drinking Age Should Be Lowered

In conclusion by lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age, more positive outcomes exist than negative ones. A lower drinking age will allow for those of age to have a chance to learn a better sense of responsibility, decrease alcohol related incidents and provide several health benefits. As a legal adult those between the ages of 18 and 21 deserve the right to make the decision of whether they would like to participate in the consumption of alcohol or

According to Alexis Aguirre in The University Star, “Keeping the minimum legal drinking age at 21 will not dissuade young people who want to indulge in reckless alcohol intake. If anything, the age limit encourages binge drinking. Lowering the drinking age could make it easier to regulate consumption among younger adults as well as encourage healthy drinking habits” (Aguirre). Sure enough, if the drinking age were lowered to 18 it would avoid the illegal, abused intake of alcohol by 18 year olds. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, “Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking” (U.S Department of Health and Human Services). A way of avoiding such tragedies is lowering the drinking age to 18, teaching younger

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

The debate of the drinking age has been long discussed throughout America. The drinking age has been 21 for the last 22 years, and people around the country have wondered weather or not this was the right call. People say that 18 year olds may not be mature enough to drink alcohol and might not know when to stop. It isn’t that teenagers don’t know how to stop, but rather have not been properly taught when enough has been consumed or how to drink responsibly. Changing the drinking age from 21 to 18 years old will take the thrill that teens get from breaking the law while drinking, will no longer give them the idea that drinking is the final stage of adulthood and full maturity, and will no longer force teenagers to drink in unsupervised

After all that has been stated in the magazine Mental Floos, an article written by Ethan Trex titled Why is the Drinking Age 21, there are some historical contrarieties among the legal drinking age as for the U.S. The U.S has had a history of attempting to restrict and control drinking in America, especially during the 20th century with the examples of the Prohibition where no matter what, people found ways to drink. The Prohibition was nationwide ban of the transportation of alcohol beverages. After the end of this period, state governments had the power over the years to have fluctuating drinking ages, making it

Lowering the drinking age to eighteen will encourage drinking in safer environments with supervision rather than secretly behind closed doors. Colleges will be a safer environment if the government would allow eighteen year olds to consume alcoholic beverages and less incidents of hidden intoxication will occur.

A large portion of the youth in America have been lead to believe that having the drinking age lowered would save lives and reduce heavy drinking, but this reasoning does not hold up. I applaud the efforts of my opposition to try and create safer drinking environments, reduce binge drinking, and save lives, but lowering the drinking age to 18 is not an effective way to accomplish those goals.

Lowering the drinking age from 21 would be irresponsible. People argue that lowering the drinking age is not smart because most youths still have not yet reached a mature age to handle alcohol. Teens that include themselves in an unsafe environment are likely to endure in self-harm and encounter in binge drinking. The Alcohol Policy Information System says, “Annually, about 5,000 youth under the age of 21 die in incidents due to underage drinking” (“Drinking”). I believe the drinking age should not be lowered because of the major hazards that could occur, an increase in traffic accidents, and the age maturity to handle alcohol responsibly.

At the age of 18, American Citizens gain the immense responsibility of becoming an adult. When you turn 18 you gain a sense of adulthood and many things that were illegal for you before are now legal. Object lessons are the right to sign a contract, vote in elections, attend on a jury, make a will, get married without parental permission and the list goes on. For what reason is it that you aren 't old enough to purchase and consume alcohol. "The passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to enhance their legal age for purchase or public ownership of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds (alcohol policy. Noah. NIH. Gov)."

In other countries a lower drinking age works because of the way alcohol is viewed and used also by how it is introduced. In most countries the drinking age is lower or nonexistent and yet most of them have less problems with drinking problems among teenagers and adults as well as lower alcoholism rates than the U.S. which has a higher drinking age. Now while in some of the countries like the United kingdom the lower drinking age

Studies show that keeping the drinking age at twenty-one improves lives. When the United States raised the age limit to twenty-one in 1985, a shortage of drinking occurred at a whopping 40% by 1991. As a result, fewer students drop out of high school, less motor accidents occur, and suicides rates dropped significantly. However, lowering the drinking age to eighteen will bring serious consequences on young adults by reversing these statistics. Lowering the drinking age will cause significant health problems, draw youth to poor judgment situations, before they are even old enough to handle the responsibility of drinking.

The debate on the drinking age is one that has been there from the beginning of the 20th century. This is because alcoholism has become a public delinquency problem with the government forced to step and set limits. The intervention took the form of the 1919 18th Amendment that prohibited alcohol making, trade, and consumption within the US. Rather than act as an effective

Lowering the drinking age to eighteen years old would be medically careless. One widely noted reason for keeping the drinking age at twenty one has to do with alcohol effects on the brain. A human brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty or twenty one. During this period of adolescence major changes in brain structure and function are taking place. Consuming alcohol during this time may interfere

The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 in the United States and allowing these young adults to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, taverns, pubs and official school and university functions (Engs). There are several ways responsible drinking can be shown and taught. One way is by older adults being good role models of this as well as educational programs that focus on responsible drinking and why it is important. Right now in most states in the U.S., the legal drinking age is currently twenty-one, although the majority of students in college are consuming alcohol and not always in a responsible manner (Engs). When these students are drinking under the age they see it as rebelling against authority and realize its risky behavior and still choose to partake in it making their actions irresponsible. “Prohibition, which banned most alcohol in the United States from 1920 to 1933, normalized the frenzied sort of drinking that occurs today at college parties” (Glaser). My final point

18 to 20 year olds are starting to drink now, lowering the drinking age to 18 will provide 15 to 17 year olds the opportunity to start drinking as well. The human mind does not reach complete intellectual development until between the ages 21-25. So by allowing people younger than the age of 21 to drink alcohol that would be allowing them to make poor decision that could affect their lives