Drinking Age To 21 Essay

When it comes to the subject of drinking and teenagers, what is the first thing that comes to mind? To me it's the legal age limit of when teens should be able to drink. Having it lowered is controversial because according to prior experiences, data shows that younger age drinking is well known for its fatalities. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), "on one of the most popular prom nights in 1999, as many as 62 percent of the traffic deaths were alcohol-related" (). The most important question is whether or not the drinking age anywhere in the United States should be lowered, raised or if it should stay the same. Statistics prove that the legal drinking age should remain at the age of twenty-one in the United States.

There has been a debate on lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. There are many reasons why this policy should not be passed. At the age of eighteen in the United States one is considered as an adult to make there own decisions, vote, and are allowed to buy Tabaco. Drinking is not one of them. Studies have shown that there are scientific reasons this should not happen. First drinking can be very harmful to the body, causing severe symptoms. Second the drinking and driving rate would increase. Finally, eighteen year olds are not as mature as twenty-one year olds. They are not as fully developed as twenty-one year olds. All of these are factors that contribute to why the drinking age should not be lowered.

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.

In the United States, 18-year-olds are considered adults. They can vote, get married and get a license for a gun yet they are not allowed to drink. Many people think that the drinking age should be 18, but others strongly believe it should be 21 for doing all kinds of things. Drinking in the United States has become a controversy for the drinking age; 18 or 21. There are many reasons why the drinking age should stay the same and many of why it should be 18. Even though many Americans think that people under 21 do not have the capacity to handle drinking, in my opinion, drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 because teenagers at the age of 18 can make important decisions, so drinking should be a decision they can too decide whether to

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

Around the world new adults are flaunting their new found responsibilities consuming alcohol at the average age of 18. However, unlike most countries in the world the United States has determined to establish their drinking age to be set at 21 years of age. This antiquated position is unjust to many young American adults. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 should be revised and reconstituted to the legal age of 18. To provide a more suitable America that is secure and reasonable for all young adults. The drinking age needs to be lowered so that it can reduce traffic fatalities, reduce binge drinking, and allow young adults to understand an old ongoing tradition. It’s time to reconsider the drinking age to allow a safer environment for everyone.

Getting to 18 years of age is an important milestone for a US resident because it is the legal age for independence, allowing the individual to make his or her decisions regarding tobacco smoking, driving and even joining the armed forces while being treated as an adult by the justice system. While this statement is essentially accurate, it is untrue concerning the ability to purchase and drink alcohol. This is because the US law has set the threshold for alcohol purchase and consumption at 21 years of age (Mistral 1980). The question then remains; if an individual is considered an adult at 18 years of age, is it not right to allow them to purchase and consume alcohol at the same age? Answering this question has been a matter of polarizing debate, with those in support of and opposition to lowering the drinking age presenting valid arguments. The present paper discusses the same argument with a subjective bias towards supporting calls for the US legislators to lower the legal drinking age to 18 years.

In the united state, anyone after the age of eighteen is considered as an adult. They are expected to be counted as a responsible grown person, which means that one is responsible for making their own decisions, education, bills, and goals. Also, at the age of eighteen in the united state; a person can vote and enlist to fight and protect for the love of their home country, but they are not allowed to have a drink of a beer legally. In the article “The Gallup Briefing” by author Carroll agrees that if the government lowered the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen the number of young people who gets hurt from alcohols or other related accidents that happens due to fear of legal consequences would decrease lot faster. Even though, the government have ruled the drinking at twenty-one, personally, I strongly agree with the statement by author Carroll. For that reason, I will be discussing about the goods and bad of lowering the drinking age, and the consequences that has among people and surrounding.

As opponents of the current MLDA of 21, claims that this law is causing young adults to be in danger from the increase in binge drinking, and it is not an effective law. The current MLDA is causing higher death and serious injuries for young adults, especially students who binge drink at the sororities and fraternity parties. When an accident happens they are afraid to call and report that accident because they are drinking illegally. Young adult students try as much as they can, not to mess with their legal records, Michael Smith, a professor, and director of graduate studies in criminal justice at the University of Southern Mississippi, and Margaret Smith, a professor of educational leadership and director of the Mississippi Institute for Drug and Violence Prevention at USM mentioned that “The drinking age of 21 has driven student partying in less public, and thus more dangerous, venues. To avoid being caught drinking illegally, students frequently party off campus”.

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.

Simultaneously, accidents involving automobiles without a doubt are devastating. How would one feel if a loved one was killed in a collision due to an intoxicated driver? Wouldn’t the individual want to do something about it? The death of the Candy Lightner’s daughter lead to her development of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This act gave full federal highway funds only to states that set the minimum age to purchase or consume alcohol at twenty-one years (Sanghavi). Once all states raised their MLDA to twenty-one years, drunk-driving accidents and deaths decreased. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the reduction in traffic fatalities due to the legal drinking age of twenty-one prevented 846 deaths in 1997 and prevented a total of 17,359 deaths since 1975 (Balkin 168). This single statistic shows that automobile accidents have substantially decreased in response to the authorization of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. In addition, the average teenager earns their drivers license at the age of seventeen. This being said, allowing a young driver with only one years experience (excluding a learners permit) to legally consume alcohol would surely be an irresponsible decision. Most people know

For countless young adults after high school the next stepping stone is college, however, students are not only learning from the classes they attend, but also from the parties. Consequently, they are being introduced to alcohol and plenty of it; learning how to shotgun a beer or attempt a keg stand is all the rage. Suddenly, people are viewing college binge drinking as a right of passage for even their youngest students. Thus, demands the questioning of lowering the drinking age to counteract college binge drinking. “The reality is that at age 18 in this country, one is a legal adult. Young people view 21 as utterly arbitrary—which it is. And because the explanation given them is so condescending—that they lack maturity and judgment,

Fatal car crashes have been an issue since the introduction of the automobile. Thankfully, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an article published March 21, 2017, “The percentage of teens in high school who drink and drive by more than half since 1991” This is in part due to the MLDA Act that has restricted many new drivers from getting drunk and recklessly driving through towns. In that same article the CDC also claims, “Young drivers (ages16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of .08% than when they have not been drinking.” Any change to the Act to lower the drinking age will only more likelihood to a fatal crash within that age group. At the Roanoke College, a private and liberal arts institute in Maryland, students complied a paper assignment with statistics of fatal car crashes due to drunk driving below the minimum drinking age. “…for the 19- and 20-year-old age cohort, after implementation of the age law, there was a startlingly and statistically significant decline (to the 4% level) in the number of driver deaths in single-vehicle nighttime accidents...” While adults and older teens would claim they could still drive sober and drink below the age of 21, the statistics show otherwise. No one can, in good thinking, lower

The drinking age has been twenty-one for the past thirty years, but for the past few years, there have been debates on changing the drinking age back to eighteen. Most individuals under twenty-one have consumed an alcoholic beverage; many have done so because he or she thinks it is cool and/or his or her friends want him or her to. Regardless of why individuals drink before the legal drinking age, if those individuals are caught by authorities, the individual(s) will have to face the consequences. Considering everything that an individual becomes responsible for at the age of eighteen in the United States of America, including: joining the military, living on one’s own, getting married, owning a vehicle, working a full time job, raising a family, and many more, but at eighteen many still believe those individuals are too young to handle alcohol. Many people have argued that if an individual is old enough to join the military and risk his or her life, he or she should be able to consume alcohol. Opinions run high over this debate, but there are many studies being conducted as well.

When teen-agers turn 18, they are told that they are adults and are sent into the world. They go to college, get a job, marry or join the military. They do grown-up things like vote, pay taxes and become parents. But they can't go to the pub for a beer because when it comes to liquor, they are still just kids. Where's the fairness in the 21-and-older drinking law?