Essay about Lower the Drinking Age

The drinking age is kind of an experiment around the world. In many places around Europe, people who are below the age of twenty-one are allowed to drink by law. Many teenagers around the US find this law biased, because teens aren't given enough credit for how responsible they can be. In Northern Europe, people see alcohol as a culture issue. In many countries it is traditional to have a glass of wine or two during each meal. The drinking age in other countries vary but the normal legal age is between 16-18 years of age. A recent "study that compared DUI laws in the United States to those in comparable nations, such as the European Union States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Brazil, found that the United States had the highest proportion of traffic fatalities that were alcohol-related among the 12 countries reporting data." It was reported that the United States had "relatively lax enforcement" in comparison to other countries ("National Minimum Drinking Age-Choose Responsibility").

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 Miller, there is little doubt that many high school and college students are drinking in excess and irresponsibly (Miller, 2016). The current message is that one should wait until they are 21 to drink and/or purchase alcohol. If the drinking age were raised adults would have to take many things into consideration such as their driving record, criminal record and overall responsibility. Many adults do not want to risk losing any of this at the age of 25. Many 21 year olds live at home with their parents or attend college where binge drinking and

The United States is one of only four nations whose drinking age is as high as 21. These three other nations are Indonesia, Mongolia and Palau. Our drinking age wasn’t always this way though. Before 1984, the minimum drinking age was set state-by-state and underwent numerous changes. Before the Prohibition Era that began in 1919, there wasn’t a minimum alcohol purchasing or possession age. During prohibition which was established by the 18th amendment, no one was allowed to consume, sell or make alcohol, but people were allowed to make their own personal alcohol up to a certain annual limit. “In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. It was ratified by the end of that year, bringing the

And yet those against whom this law is directed routinely evade it, and often with life-threatening results. Since the law changed in 1984, fewer young adults are consuming alcohol (of course, under an effective law, none should), but 45 percent of those who do drink drink excessively. Binge drinking is as widespread now as it was before the age was raised.

“Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states lowered their age for drinking alcohol. The results were catastrophic. Highway deaths among teenagers and young adults skyrocketed” (Carla T). at one point the age limit was eighth teen but because of so many young people dying the age for drinking was raised. The United States realized that teenagers weren’t responsible enough to drink at such a young age. Twenty- one should stay the age in the last two years I have seen so many young people getting killed in car accident and shootings are fights simple because minors are drinking and not being responsible for the actions for the things they partake in.

On July 17, 1984 the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21. About 72% of students consumed more than just a few sips of alcohol before the end of high school. 37% of those students consume it before the end of eighth grade. Each year, approximately 5,000 teens under the age of 21 die from underage drinking. Alcohol has become the most widely substance of abuse among America’s teens. Underage drinking is a huge problem all across the world, and is a huge health risk.

According to Carla Main, “Underage Drinking and the Drinking age”, explains the side of the argument that states that the drinking age in the United States should remain at twenty-one. Since the 1970’s to the early 1980’s the use of alcohol in younger people have increased. In the early 1980’s, the percentage of the use of alcohol was relatively low in young adults, due to the fact that availability of alcohol was limited. While this was a major reason why the use of alcohol was low, the social norms in the 1980’s were not nearly as focused on drinking alcohol as our social norms that are portrayed today. (Main,2009). Our social norms have become centered around young adults and underage drinking can be the reason of why the young people of this current generation have increased the amount of alcohol they drink.

The facts of underage drinking are a bit shocking in some ways. “Underage drinking refers to the consumption of beverage alcohol…by persons 20 years of age and younger” (“Underage Drinking Glossary”). According to the article, Teens and Alcohol, around one and ten teenagers under the age of fourteen drink, and three in ten teens drink from the ages fifteen to seventeen. If those teens continue to drink it becomes addictive to the body. “They need to drink alcohol in order to function normally, and their drinking causes problems” (“Teens and Alcohol” 2). Nobody should have to turn out like this. The law of the legal drinking age of twenty-one, came in 1988. This law is still to this day not obeyed and causes traumatizing experiences. Although teen Americans drink for two main causes, the effects of drinking are diverse throughout them.

The youth is not trained or prepared to take on the burden of responsible drinking. Rather than provided leadership he is subjected to peer pressure encouraging him to act irresponsibly. The draft age and drinking age argument does not provide a convincing basis for a change in the law. A second argument often heard supporting a reduction in lowering the drinking age "eighteen to twenty year old are going to drink anyway so lower the drinking age."??????? The attached chart shows, "Over 75% of eighth grade students have tried alcohol, and 55% of them have tried it by sixth grade" ???????? While it is obvious that many teen-agers are breaking the law today, this is not advocating a change in the law. "It has been argued that laws do not impact or change behavior, but there is strong circumstantial evidence that drinking-driving laws do make a difference. Laws are a statement of the views of society, and the increase of penalties given the clear message that drinking and driving is viewed as a crime against society" (Tatman 1). The fact that laws are sometimes is not justification for changing the laws. Many supporters of a lowering of the legal alcohol age contend that eighteen or nineteen are mature enough to deal with alcohol. This argument is not supported by the facts. "Over 40% of all the 16-to-20 year olds who died in 1994 were killed in car crashes. And about half of those were

Some people believe that the legal drinking age in the United States should be 18 instead of 21. They think this because you can fight for your country and vote that you should be able to drink. Even though these might seem like good points, there are many more reasons the age is set at 21. There is a lot of research behind how alcohol effects kids under 21. There is a lot of safety reasons behind why the age is 21. Last, making is legal for teenagers to drink leads to worse drug use, and younger kids more likely to try it and buy it from teenagers.

Most states after the prohibition set their legal drinking age to 21 which at the time was the age of majority at the time. Few states had a lower purchase age for alcohol. Thirty states followed these minority states in the early 1970 's; of which the majority lowered the MLDA to 18 years of age (Wagenaar A. C., 1993). Most states reasoning behind this lowering of this age of majority was because the legal voting age was changed from 21 to 18 in 1971. With continued moment through the years things altered each states though and reasoning and again a majority change the alcohol purchase age to 19 years of age. The bump in age was because of an increase of 18 year old deaths and alcohol related accidents (Wagenaar A. C., 1993). There were also direct correlations to the seat belt laws and these numbers. In 1984 congress passed a law requiring states to raise their legal ages of purchase to 21 by Oct of 1986 or loose funding for their federal highways. By mid-1988, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had raised their purchase ages to 21 (Wagenaar A. C., 1993). With the drinking age at 21 and higher than the legal age of majority, brings some tension for many Americans.

In all fifty states in the United States of America, the legal drinking age for people is 21 years old. Many people in the country and people from other countries ask the question, why is it so excessive as opposed to most countries in the world where the standard is 18 years old? There is a multitude of different reasons behind this including the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and many other groups having heavy influences along with political parties which influence lawmaking in the country. Alcohol can lead to fun parties, meeting great people, experiencing everything life has to offer but also has a dark side. Drinking can also have serious consequences; for example, when I was still in high school I knew these two girls and at a party, I swear half of the school was at, they were drunk but told everybody they could drive. These girls hit a tree going 40 mph and both died and from what people told me they weren’t even that drunk. To prevent this type of incident from happening in 1984, President Ronald Reagan passed the Minimum Drinking Age Act which raised the minimum drinking age to 21 or suffers a 10% cut in federal highway funding. This act was made to prevent the sale and consumption of any form of alcohol to anybody under the age of 21.

At 18 in the United States, you are allowed to vote, get married, buy cigarettes, and enlist in the military; however, the one thing that you cannot do: drink alcohol. I believe that the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18, because if you are deemed mature enough to vote for the President of the United States or to sacrifice your life for your country, you should be able to have a drink.

Being a certain age you are expected to be able to make conscious decisions whether something will have good consequence or bad ones. The legal age to consume alcohol is 21, although when you turn 18 you’re able to buy lottery tickets, enlist in the army, vote for president, get married, open a bank account, and more. While 18 year olds are not legally able to consume alcohol but 72% of high schoolers have drank more than a few sips by the end of their high school career. Statistics by SADD, say that in the past month underage drinking (12-20) have consumed alcohol, 26.4% and 17.4% were binge drinking alone. The legal age of 21 is not stopping teens and young adults from drinking behind closed doors.