Essay On Drinking Age

Once the issue of lowering the minimum legal drinking age arose, many individual states began to review their drinking laws. Some chose to lower the legal age to eighteen, while others remained at twenty-one. Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states had changed their legal drinking age to eighteen (Main 35). What this caused was teenagers travelling from one state to another where they were allowed to drink at the age of eighteen. This travelling led to an increase in highway accidents due to drunk driving (Main 35). This was quickly brought to the federal government’s attention. In the article, “Turning 21 and the Associated Changes in Drinking and Driving After Drinking Among College Students” by Kim Fromme, Reagan R. Wetherill, and Dan J. Neal, the problem with alcohol related highway accidents was addressed. The states realized that the differences between legal drinking ages was causing a problem and by 1988, each state had set their legal drinking age back to twenty-one (Fromme, Neal, and Wetherill 22). Now, the question is whether or not this change has had a positive or negative effect on drinking habits amongst teenagers.

Once a person turns eighteen, he or she receives many rights and privileges. One major right that all of these teenagers are missing is the right to buy and consume alcohol. The question is posed is whether lowering the minimum drinking age to eighteen would be a better or worse idea. Jeffery A. Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University’s economics department, and Elina Tetelbaum, a law student from Yale University, write in their argumentative article in Forbes Magazine, “The Dangers of the Drinking Age”, in which they believe that the minimum drinking age of twenty-one is not working. After conducting studies, they found that the minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one has little or no effect on traffic fatalities. Lowering the minimum drinking age to eighteen would likely have the same effects as the minimum age of twenty-one; it is reasonable to assume that underage teenagers may feel less rebellious knowing that they can legally buy and consume alcohol at the age of eighteen.

With the thought of drinking at a legal age, typically you will think about responsible adults. There are many reasons why raising the legal drinking age to 25 years old could help support this change. All things can change for the better.

Furthermore, 21 year olds create less traffic accidents and fatalities than 18 year olds. For example, 21 years olds are more mature and responsible for their own actions than 18 years olds. As a fact, “Excessive alcohol consumption contributes to more than 4,700 deaths among underage youth, that is, persons less than 21 years of age, in the United States each year.” (CDC). Throughout each year, 21 year old drivers tend to be safer on the road than 18 year olds. To prove this, 18 year olds get carried away with drinking while driving and force them to cause trouble with others.

Once a person reaches the age of 18, they are allowed to tattoo their bodies, smoke tobacco, gamble and even enlist if they wanted to! As an adult, they want to be treated as one but how can they feel like an adult if hanging around with their friends and drinking beer while watching TV is illegal? Of course, that does not stop them, though. The United States is one of the few countries in which still have such a high minimum drinking age. Although most people think young adults (18-year olds) are irresponsible, the minimum drinking age should be lowered to 18 because they deserve to be recognized as adults in order to avoid illegal, uncontrolled drinking and other illegal actions.

Every year, thousands of deaths occur as a result of drunk driving, and every day people are facing the consequences of irresponsible drinking. Because of the issues caused by irresponsible drinking, the US government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984 which raised the minimum drinking age to twenty-one to prevent drinking-related accidents and violence. Despite the intent of its passing, it was a counterproductive decision. Because of the higher age restriction, high school upperclassmen and college underclassmen see drinking as an exciting, rebellious act. Consequentially, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act resulted in an increase in dangerous and irresponsible drinking which continues to this day. Not only does the

“She mentions that there are some good and some bad arguments. Research has shown that a drinking age of 21 does reduce alcohol use by those under 21, including high school and college students. She says that traffic accidents are a primary reason why Vietnam-era experimentation with lower drinking ages was abandoned.” Tara Watson. The study shows that arrest rates rise sharply at age 21 through at least 23.

Many studies carried out on the effect of a higher drinking age on the rates of traffic accidents have found out that there has been a significant drop in numbers. A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found out that the increased of MLDA age significantly reduced the number of fatal traffic accidents among the age of 18 and 20 years olds by approximately thirteen percent (NHTSA, 6). Similarly, a total of close to 27,502 lives were saved between the years of 1975 and 2008. Hence, lowering the MLDA to 18 would only mean more traffic accidents and fatalities among the

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.

Today alcohol, is a huge problem that affects the entire world. In particular, in America it seemed a good idea to increase the legal drinking age to 21 years old, to lower accidents that may be caused by alcohol consumers. The issue is to understand if this decision actually helped, or if the USA should reconsider to lower the drinking age to 18 years old again.

“We don't hand teenagers car keys without first educating them about how to drive. Why expect 21-year-olds to learn how to drink responsibly without learning from moderate models, at home and in alcohol education programs?” As asserted by Gabrielle Glaser, in an article posted on New York Times, lowering the drinking age is a hot issue with many approaches and reasonings. Countless people, aging from twelve to twenty-one, are calling for a change regarding the legal drinking age. This issue is not only a testament to the health of Americans, but also to their rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, many newly-turned adults are bamboozled that being eighteen has seemingly left one thing out; the ability to buy and drink alcohol. Teenagers see being eighteen being an age of complete independence, so why limit this new found freedom? If they are old enough to participate in elections, take up arms and fight for their country, and decide if they want to be a lifetime smoker, why is alcohol the last ‘privilege’ they receive? Whereas many researchers, professors, bloggers, and health care professionals believe the drinking age at its twenty-one standing is working, I firmly believe it should be lowered for a multitude of reasons including DUI laws, increase in tax money, leisure activity, and more.

A journal entry adopted from the series chronicled by the Journal of Safety Research posted in 1986 by the National Safety Council and Personal Communication presented saddening findings related to lowering drinking age across various U.S states. Accordingly, several U.S states lowered the minimal age for drinking between 1970 and 1973. Several researches conducted after the changes were sanctioned found considerable increase in traffic crashes related to

Although not irrational to think this, the opposite is true. During the presentation for the 15th International Conference on Alcohol, Barry Sweedler states that “When the United States increased the drinking age to 21, its rate of traffic fatalities in the 1980s decreased less than that of European countries whose legal drinking ages are lower than 21 and therefore is proof that the drinking age doesn't play such a prominent role in preventing these fatalities. In Germany, for example, where the drinking age is 16, alcohol-related fatalities decreased by 57 percent between 1975 and 1990.” The most likely cause for the decrease in traffic fatalities is a combination of law enforcement, education, and advances in automobile-safety technologies such as airbags and roll cages. (Minton) Actually, in an award-winning study in 2010, University of Notre Dame undergraduate Dan Dirscherl found that banning the purchase of alcohol between the ages of 18 and 21 actually increased traffic fatalities of those between the ages of 18 and

Was it a good decision to choose 21 as the legal drinking age? Research shows that “alcohol consumption, heavy drinking, and daily alcohol use has declined among young adults age 18-20 since the 1980s” (Wechsler). Along with the decline in consumption, the percentage of alcohol-related traffic fatalities has also dramatically declined from the 1980s until 1997 when it leveled off. (Wechsler).

While people want to lower the drinking age, they are right not doing so because this could cause more car accidents. In an article titled Study: Lowering The Drinking Age Increases Car Crashes Among Youth by Join Together Staff, the author states “Several studies in the United States have shown significant reductions in alcohol-related traffic crashes since the Uniform Drinking