Essay about Lower the Drinking Age To 18

A serious epidemic is overtaking this country. Underage drinking is spreading like a virus. It is not just teenagers in college that are drinking; there are numerous kids in high school, middle school, and even elementary school! How have we let it get this far? There is no excuse to be oblivious anymore. Underage drinking is right in front of our faces. It is killing our children. The good news is that this is a problem that can be fixed. There is no way of completely eliminating underage drinking, but it can be greatly reduced. With efforts from the government, parents, and the media, we can diminish underage drinking a great deal. We need to start educating our children that alcohol is a dangerous drug. We need to start setting better

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").

Early introduction into drinking will reduce binge drinking. If people are introduced into drinking early, they’ll be drinking moderately. Scientific evidence supports that early introduction to drinking is the safest way to reduce juvenile alcohol abuse. Young people in France, Spain, and Argentina, rarely abuse alcohol. They start drinking within their families, which sees drinking in moderation as natural. They rarely

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

Rather than increasing the age limit to 21, parents to young children can demonstrate good drinking habits to them as children tend to pick up their parent’s drinking habits at a very young age, anything from not drinking reasonably or responsibly, and getting intoxicated in front of your children and or implying to your children that drinking alcohol will ultimately relieve you from stressful times in your life, when there are other safer things to turn to that will take your mind off of a stressful situation (i.e. walking the dog, going to the beach, listening to peaceful music) is never acceptable, instead show them good drinking habits by turning to other things to relieve you from stress, and drinking responsibly or not at all in the presence of your children. Another thing that parents can do is be strict on their children when it comes to what

Most of the world allows you to drink legally at ages eighteen or nineteen. For example, France starts to allow children at the age of six or seven to have wine. It starts out watered down, but as the children get older, they move onto moderate sized glasses full of regular wine. By the time they get to the drinking age of eighteen, they know how alcohol affects the body and how much they can drink without getting drunk. This allows the children in France to respect alcohol, which leads to lower deaths caused from alcohol abuse. The children do not feel the need to hide the alcohol from their parents, unlike here in America. Most kids have tried alcohol before they turn twenty-one, and they hide it from their parents. This creates a whole new problem. If someone would get alcohol poisoning or anything else that might be serious, most teens would not go for help due to the fact that they would get in trouble. Also, when Americans finally turn twenty-one they go out and get really drunk, which leads to alcohol abuse.

Things that one can do when they turn 18 include getting a tattoo and piercing without parental consent, buying a lottery ticket, the opportunity to vote, and the ability to donate blood. In some states you can even buy cigarettes. To say that an 18 year old is legally an adult, but not allow them to do everything an adult really gets to do, defeats the purpose. Purchasing and consuming alcohol, legally, at a younger age will normalize alcohol, thus not making it a big deal when the opportunity of drinking comes up. What is important is that when given the opportunity to drink, its is done

First, you have the American parents with what some would consider a strict kind of view of alcohol use. Most American parents prohibit drinking in their household. The American parents view on drinking: “American parents … articulate notions about alcohol that are similar to those about sexuality – the adolescent self who is not yet equipped to control the strong inner passions or peer pressures and whose

When children are told all of their lives that they are not allowed to drink, it makes them want to because it makes them feel cool or rebellious. The United States has, in the past, tried to get rid of alcohol because of all of the negative effects. The laws trying to ban alcohol were overturned because they could not stop alcohol from being smuggled around and the general public was angry. Saying that people are not allowed to drink does nothing because they will still find a way to get it. (Why Drinking)

Countries that have a lower drinking age do not have as many problems as The United States. The US and places such as Europe do not treat alcohol the same way. In Europe, kids as young as twelve share a glass of wine with their parents at dinner. In America if you were to see a situation like that the authorities would be involved. The country does not condition or ease its youth into drinking. They are taught that drinking is a social activity to drink in moderation. In America, moderation and alcohol do not mix. The US does not like to admit that a very large percentage of youth partaken in not just drinking alcohol, but binge drinking. Because of this it leads to many accidents. Around 2,000 teenagers die each year from alcohol related car accidents. In Europe the rate of alcohol related car crashes has had a decline much quicker than the US. The youth in Europe tend to have more responsibility and control compared to

In the United States at eighteen years old a citizen can vote. At eighteen a person can choose who will be president, governor, senator, and other important positions. If an eighteen year old can make the decision of who should run the country, then they can decide if they want to drink alcohol. By the age of eighteen most people are intelligent enough to comprehend politics and vote, and they should be smart enough to understand how alcohol affects a person and smart responsibly. Of an eighteen year old can vote, then they should be able to drink.

Youth should be well educated about consumption of alcohol well before middle school. By the time students reach middle school they are already exposed to alcohol. D.A.R.E, the program that teaches children about alcohol and its effects, should be taught in

The drinking age should be raised to the age where they have no problem controlling themselves. The age gap between nineteen and twenty-one may seem very little, but you get to develop a lot from those three years. At the age of 20, you get to attend a university, and at the age of 21, you get to earn a driver’s license thus through these steps we develop our maturity as mentally and physically.

Teenage drinking is something that goes on every day. No matter how many videos you show to kids about drinking they will still drink. Surveys show that the average teen seventeen and up spends $475.00 a year on liquor, mostly beer; that's more than books, soda, coffee, juice and milk combined. Most parents don't know about teenage drinking unless they catch their kids doing it. Parents usually say "oh, my my kid would never do that ", and they're the ones whose kids probably drink more that the average teen. One might ask, how do kids get alcohol? Alcohol is almost as easy to get as a carton of milk, except a teen has to get someone older like a friend, brother

As young as 8th graders start to drink in total percentage there are 11% 8th graders that try or start to drink. Not teaching the kids that drinking is something that you don't want to we result in them not having a long life. If no one tells them that it's not ok to drink they will keep doing it and then will drive when they drink and that one day that they do they kill someone by hitting them. Not that you only endanger yourself but you endanger everyone that is around you and the people that are in the car with you at the time. The older you get when you're in high school the more likely you will drink once you hit 10th grade there is 22% of teens that have had more than 5 drinks. Once you hit 12th grade there is a 7% increase in the