Essay Against Lowering The Drinking Age

A lower drinking age law would save even more lives and also stop minors from drinking under the limit. Having it higher will result in more traffic injuries and fatalities among youth. A lower drinking age is effective in preventing alcohol-related deaths and injuries among youth. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heavy drinking age. According to John McCardell, founder of Choose Responsibility, the legal drinking age does not eliminate consumption among young people. Instead, it only drives underage drinking underground, creating a dangerous culture of irresponsible and extreme drinking. Although the legal purchase age is 21 years of age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing "forbidden fruit," a "badge of rebellion against authority" and a symbol of "adulthood."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. “For example, 22% of all students under 21 compared to 18% over 21 years of age are heavy drinkers.” “Among drinkers only, 32% of underage compared to 24% of legal age are heavy drinkers.”

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

The drinking age in the United States is a contradiction. At the age of eighteen, one can drive a car, vote in an election, get married, serve in the military and buy tobacco products. In the United States you are legally an adult at eighteen. An eighteen-year-old, however, cannot purchase alcoholic beverages. The minimum drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one in the United States.

In other countries, the MLDA is low. Lowering the drinking age, would prevent other crimes from happening. Drinking age is not directly associated with the decrease in traffic fatalities. Body Lowering the drinking age, would decrease dangerous, unsupervised drinking

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

Many teenagers and young adults drink and drive because they often drink in secluded and irresponsible environments where they are allowed to leave in vehicles, even while under the influence. This has caused an incredibly large amounts of horrific wrecks, many of which claimed the lives of teenagers and young adults. Also, the majority of alcohol related injuries are not even caused by underage adults. There are also countries who have fewer alcohol related wrecks, even though the legal drinking age is eighteen in these countries. By lowering the legal drinking age many underge adults would not have to drive to such secluded and irresponsible locations. Underage adults could consume alcohol in locations where driving under the influence could be prevented. By preventing under the influence driving, many vehicular accidents could be prevented and lives could be potentially

Reviewing these statists one may be able to analaze and see that even drivers between 21 to 24 were high at risk. What would make a person want to lower the drinking age to 18. Young adults at eighteen are new drivers and less expierenced then the 21 + drivers and logically would produce more fatal crashes.

And while having the drinking age at 21 has lowered teen driving fatalities, it may be just that there are now more fatalities after the age of 21. “Research suggests that the reduction in teenage alcohol-related fatalities that some point to as a reason for keeping the drinking age

In 1933 the legal age to drink in many states was 18, following the repeal of Prohibition in 1975 it increased to 21 in most states. The increase came from a study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, it estimated that 730 lives would be saved if the MLDA was 21. Congress did not overstep the states by mandating the legal drinking age on a federal level, but any state refusing to increase MLDA would not receive all federal highway funding allocate for that particular state. The MLDA was initially set at 18, due to the concept that if one is considered an adult to make decisions whether to serve in the military or vote at the age of 18, who could tell

Minor in possession laws (sometimes called underage drinking laws) target sales of alcohol to minors and public possession of alcohol by minors. Since the passage in 1984 of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (23 U.S.C.A. § 158), all states have had to raise their minimum drinking age to 21. States that did not risked lowering the amount of highway funds they receive under the Federal Highway Act. All states presently comply with the Drinking Age Act.

In the end, I believe that if the United States view 18 year- olds as adults when it comes to voting and marriage, then they should be viewed as adults when it comes to drinking too. If 18 year olds are allowed to put their lives at risk for our nation, then why shouldn’t they be viewed as old enough to buy and enjoy

Do you know of anyone who has had an alcohol related death. There are so many deaths in the U.S alone that have been caused by alcohol. Alcohol is a go to drink now a days. Alcohol has been traced back to around 12,000 years. The MLDA didn’t always used to be set at 21. In the late 60s states began to lower their MLDA, although this resulted in many deaths alcohol related. President Reagan signed off a law saying that the MLDA (Minimum legal drinking age) must be at 21. This was proven to be safer and reduced number of alcohol related deaths.

If we lower the MLDA 21, it will lead to younger people in the bars and nightclubs and therefore a greater number of the population can end up in dangerous situations. Alcohol has the ability to increase a humans anger which can lead to them getting in fights. Going to the bar or a nightclub is not legal until 21 in the U.S, however, many teenagers already got their fake I.D, which means they can get into a bar or nightclub with ease.

There are three particular birthdays every person looks forward to in their lifetime: sixteen, eighteen, and twenty one. Sixteen brings the freedom of driving. Eighteen brings the freedom of being mostly an adult. Finally, twenty one brings the freedom to consume alcohol. As an eighteen year old, you’re probably wondering how it’s fair you can be tried as an adult but not have a glass wine at dinner. Or how you can die for your country, but not have a beer. It’s not. It’s simply not right or fair. The United States needs to allow states to lower the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA).

Therefore that can mean that drinking should be similarly restricted to 21 years of age still due to the responsibilities required to self and others. Analysis still help support and prove that higher legal drinking ages were associated with lower alcohol consumption. MLDA 21 Laws reduces the number of underage drinkers. There are studies that help trace and indicate that when the drinking age is 21, those who are younger than 21 drink less and continue to drink less during their early 20’s. It was also said that youth who tend to wait to drink until they are 21 years of age tend to drink less as