Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

When people turn eighteen they are finally considered an adult. They can join the army, vote, buy cigarettes or tobacco products, get a tattoo and even die for our country. Although everyone considers that person to be an adult, they are still not old enough to buy or consume alcohol. A person can be responsible enough to live on their own, make their own money, pay their own bills, and yet they are still not considered old enough to purchase or consume any type of alcohol. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would help prevent the crime and personal injuries that are caused by alcohol abuse.

In the U.S. the minimum drinking age is at 21 and I believe it should be lowered to 18. People 18 years and older are considered adults and should be treated as such by being allowed to legally purchase and consume alcohol. Lowering the drinking age will not only give 18-year-olds the rights and recognition they deserve as adults, but will also obliterate a largely ineffective law that only serves to create more red tape. At the age of 18, a U.S. citizen can vote in an election, defend and possibly die for their country and make all kinds of decisions regarding their life and body. If I want to vote democrat, I can. If I want ink up my body, I can. If I want to fill my lungs with smoke, I can do that too. Going wine tasting with some friends,

Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make a lot of sense in the world. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make more sense. It would be better for the teens that drink on college campus. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because you can vote at eighteen, buy tobacco, it’ll reduce the thrill of breaking the law, evidence supports that early introduction of drinking is the safest way to reduce juvenile alcohol abuse, and college people that are not 21 drink also.

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.

The drinking age should be lowered to eighteen because there has been many problems that have caused life threatening dangers to these teens. The age eighteen is where you start to become an adult so people should have the right to drink when they turn eighteen (“Drinking Age”). It also should be allowed

The legal drinking age should not be lowered to 18, but stay at 21 because It leads to irresponsible behavior and decisions. Young adults who drink tend not to care about their actions. Robert Voas who has worked for the National Highway Administration Office, claims that it would not be a good idea to lower the drinking age to 18. According to Voas, (Believe me when I say that lowering the drinking age would be very dangerous; it would benefit no one except those who profit from alcohol sales.) Young adults who are not 21 years of age tend to make irresponsible decisions like getting behind the wheel drunk. Being a young adult and driving under the influence of alcohol can lead one to a major accident or even death. Lowering the requirement of drinking may benefit underage adults but the death rate of drunk driving will increase rapidly. Robert Voas has studied drunk driving for 40 years and he has seen numerous accidents and deaths of immature young adults drinking under the influence.

Many people debate whether or not the drinking age should be lowered.  While many feel that it should be lowered, the evidence is overwhelming that changing the drinking age to eighteen would be an extremely dangerous decision. Allowing teens to consume alcohol can make them more vulnerable to drugs and substance abuse, unplanned and unprotected sex, depression, violence, and other social

Changing the drinking age from 18 to 21 has many drawbacks in the long term and short term. For example, drinking can lead to extreme damage to the the liver, most 18 years old are not fully developed physically and mentally, and keeping the drinking age as it is, will save lives by lowering the amount of drunk driving and accidents due to drunk driving. If you compare i non alcohol drinkers liver to compared to a healthy non-alcoholic person their liver is a lot more damaged. Drinking under age contributes a big part to deaths as argued by McCardell, “Of the total number of lives lost to alcohol by those under the age of 21, more than 60 percent are lost off the roadways. Alcohol takes a much greater toll off the highways”(McCardell). Having

Today, people are aware that the law does not stop underage drinking, as illustrated by the thousands of deaths resulting from excessive alcohol consumption by people below the age of 21. A group called the Amethyst Initiative is now pushing for the lowering of the drinking age to 18. Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to 18, or would this have the same catastrophic results as in the 1970s?

A very controversial argument amongst Americans is determining that the current legal drinking age which is 21 should be lowered to eighteen or not. Researching the following propaganda made me understand the dangers to the youth and people in America if the drinking age were to lower. Therefore i will argue with whoever disagrees with me that the drinking age should be lowered.

Alcohol leads to other drugs and substance abuse, too. If the drinking age were to lower to eighteen, this would not change the actions of young partiers. “Alcohol should be forbidden to 18- to 20-year-olds precisely because they have a propensity to binge drink whether the stuff is illegal or not—especially males” (Main). Drinking alcohol usually leads to other illegal substances. “Youths who report drinking prior to the age of 15 are more likely to develop substance abuse problems, to engage in risky sexual behavior, and to experience other negative consequences in comparison to those who begin at a later time” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

Lowering the drinking age to 18 would be medically irresponsible. Drinking under the age of 21 has been linked to several physical issues among young people ("Fact Sheets - Age 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age"). The underage consumption of alcohol can impede the development of the frontal lobes of a young adult’s brain. These lobes are responsible for the regulation of emotions, organizing, and planning. Any damage sustained to this area of the brain can cause problems that last a lifetime, and can even lead to depression and suicide ("Drinking Age ProCon.org"). Although these are very serious dilemmas, there are those who would argue that if the brain were mature enough to make the important decisions, such as voting, fighting and dying for the country, and serving in a jury, it is mature enough to make the decision and handle drinking.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, excessive drinking in underage youth is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths each year. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen could help decrease the number of fatalities. Around 11% of all alcohol that is consumed in the United States, is consumed by underage drinkers ranging in age from twelve to twenty. (“Underage Drinking” np) The average youth drinks more alcohol at an occasion than adults do. Lowering the legal age to drink could help decrease these problems. The average teenage drinkers only get together during the weekends in a private area, such as, hunting camp, friend’s house, pretty much anywhere adults will not be. If teens were able to access alcohol legally at eighteen,

People use alcohol for numerous reasons: peer pressure, celebration, anxiety, sadness, rebellion, and boredom are just a handful. As far as I know, teenagers fall under this category of “people”. In America, the legal drinking age is currently set at twenty one. But as far as being illegal, there is not a such thing as an age. I can assure you that the underage drinking percentage would drop if the age is lowered. Among the previously listed reasons that call for the consumption of alcohol, the main reason for teenage drinking is being rebellious and breaking the law. 88% of high school seniors claim to have consumed alcohol (Main). This shows us that a larger percentage of teens under the age of eighteen have used alcohol. If we view this concept from a larger point-of-view, we will come to the conclusion that the number one reason teenagers consume alcohol is due to the fact of knowing that they are doing something illegal and something that they are not supposed to be doing. This is the feeling that all teenagers love to have rushing through their bodies. The rebellious acts and the adrenaline rush is the way of modern day teenage lifestyle. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen would drastically reduce the amount of underage consumption of alcoholic beverages.

There has been an ongoing controversy in the United States about whether the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen like in most of the world, or if it should stay at twenty-one. Underage drinking has been a major controversial issue for years, yet why is it not under control? Teenagers are continuing to buy alcohol with fake identification cards, drink, get into bars, and drink illegally. As a teen, I have seen that these things are going on right now in the world. Not only in college but in high school as well. There are a lot of factors that help reason with why the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen; the most obvious reason is too many people are drinking before they are twenty-one. Liquor stores, bars, and clubs all want to make money and if they can get away with selling to underage teens then they will. It is obvious that the law has not succeeded in preventing undreage teens from drinking.