How To Decrease The Drinking Age To 18

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

"Adults under 21 are able to vote, sign contracts, serve on juries, and enlist in the military, but are told that they are not mature enough to have a beer?," said Ruth C. Engs, a professor of Applied Health Sciences at Indiana University (Engs). No matter what is done, teenagers and young adults all over America are going to drink if they want to. The question is, why can 't they start legally drinking when they enter adulthood? An alternative to simply lowering the minimum legal drinking age could be thought of, such as, having a learner 's permit for responsible drinking for people between the ages of 18-21. In other cultures where the minimum legal drinking age is lower, there is not as large of a problem with drinking. Lowering the minimum legal drinking age would stop criminalizing a large amount of people for the minor crime of underage drinking, which on your record makes it hard for young people to apply for jobs or apply to colleges.

If young adults under 21 are allowed to drink, then the revenues for businesses would intentionally increase. For businesses, it would be great for the law to lower the drinking age because it would increase their profits of young adults under 21 purchasing alcohol. Researchers found that if the drinking age lowers, industries are likely to make a huge amount of profit (Science Daily). According to Science Daily, more people to consume alcohol will likely increase the amount of money in the industries. In this context, the more the

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

Everyone knows that it is illegal to consume alcohol under the age of 21. Why is 21 the "magical" age that makes a person intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? Sure, some adults abuse alcohol and some teenagers would be perfectly able to drink responsibly, but why not 18 or 35 or 40? This seemingly random number, 21, is associated with adulthood, as if the day a person turns 21 they know everything and are mature. The drinking age should be lowered to where one can learn to drink responsibly.

According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not

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.

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

The U.S. gov’t has set an age limit on the consumption of alcohol, in order to lead safer and healthier lives. One reason it is believed to be safer if one cannot drink alcohol until the age of 21, is because the brain has not fully developed and the consumption of alcohol will interfere with that development. But is it really safer if the drinking age is 21, rather than 18? Many people will believe that it is safer, because that’s what the gov’t tells them, but those people will often fail to see the whole picture. Other than brain development,

Another great benefit that can be derived through lowering the drinking age is reducing the amount of trouble teenagers get into legaly for underaged drinking, and crimes directly related to it. Teens would be getting into less trouble for drinking since the age limit is lowered more of the ones that already do drink at the age of eighteen wouldn’t get in trouble for it, and it would encourage those under the age of eighteen to wait till they’re of legal age since they don’t have to wait as long to so. Even with the law saying you must be 21 or older to drink, many teenagers still do it, and because of it they get in trouble for it. Not only that but the reduced age limit would make it so teens wouldn’t acquire fake ID’s and overall showing

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

In fact, of all underage drinking, some 90 percent is consumed through binge drinking [as of March 2014]” (Hall). That being said, by making alcohol more readily available it will reduce pregaming and excessive drinking on and off campus. “ The main consequence of this law has been to drive college-age alcohol consumption underground, which has in all likelihood increased that consumption and probably actually increased drunk driving,” says Gordon. Nevertheless, pregaming can lead to heavily intoxicated individuals driving drunk to their final party destination; which could cause more alcohol related traffic fatalities. By lowering the drinking age young adults could safely drink a reasonable amount of alcohol, legally, without the fear of getting in trouble for doing so.

Most of all society has drank, or does drink before the legal age of twenty-one. Just because the law states the legal drinking age is twenty-one does not mean society listens to it. Lowing the drinking age to eighteen could possibly lower the amount of injuries unreported because people would try to seek help instead of trying to keep the problem under the radar. On the other hand people older than eighteen are likely to be more responsible with the actions that person has to deal with. Drinking constantly or being sexually irresponsible is just a few of the concerns of being under twenty-one (Drinking Age ProCon.org). Although the drinking age is twenty-one underage teenagers still have a source to get alcohol and to consume it, so to lower the age to eighteen would keep the underage drinking down.

Almost everyone can agree that children and young adults should not drink alcohol until they reach a certain age. Alcohol is a very dangerous substance when it is used incorrectly and immaturely. This can have some very dangerous consequences to anyone who is drinking or anyone around them. This is one of the reasons for the drinking age being 21 in all of the 50 States. Evan though the drinking age has changed many times over the years. This is one instance where civil disobedience should not be exercised. Because of how dangerous underage drinking is to the individual and others who are around that person.

The benefits for lowering the drinking age include lowering the danger placed on teenagers who use shady and dangerous methods to get alcohol, such as finding a dealer or using a fake