Persuasive Speech On Lowering The Drinking Age

Converse to the ideals of 18 to 20 year olds, the federal government favors the current drinking age and deters states from lowering them. Between 1970 and 1982, 36 states lowered their individual drinking ages to 18, 19 or 20 (Searles). A major problem that occurred during those times was the “blood boarder” incidents. Teenagers living adjacent to states with lower drinking ages would cross the boarder to buy alcohol, then drive back under the influence. In order to prevent the increase in accidents and fatalities linked to these occurrences, the federal government (with significant lobbying from Mothers Against Drunk Driving) passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. To ensure that all states complied with it, the federal government would cut 10% of highway funding to any state with a drinking age lower than 21 (Searles).

As with all human beings, there are happy memories and bad memories. Some have no effect, and others can change someone’s life completely. Elie Wiesel’s autobiography, Night, writes about Elie’s external conflict of the horrors of the Holocaust’s violent concentration camps. Elie resolves this conflict by having all the hope of the world in him and enduring the evident deaths of his family members; however, Elie’s trek also illustrates his character as both enduring and dependent. Elie’s decision to staying hopeful and stay enduring also reveals the universal theme of, “The toughest and darkest of times and experience can test your hope”

In 1984 Ronald Reagan proposed a new law that declared that the legal drinking age must raised up to 21 instead of the age of 18. The law was forced upon the states by threatening them by stating that the government will reduce their highway funding until the states passed the law. Of course all the states eventually change their legal drinking age to 21. Some critics believe that this law’s results have been very successful, however the law possesses many insecurities, but certain programs can be arranged to help educate teenagers on alcohol.

Johnny Cash said it best, “Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.” Country music is everywhere, blasting from a lifted truck, a store, or a local bar, ranging from Classical country to Pop country. Country music is not just words written down on a piece of paper, they are more than that. The artists can write songs that most people can relate to. Alan Jackson and Luke Bryan are both very known country singers, but are different when it comes down to managing their careers.

Society’s attitude towards the drinking age has been a major controversy in the United States. The attitudes regarding the drinking age have been based off statistics and society’s varying opinion. Alcohol is a toxic depressant that has a damaging effect on the human body. As a result, to prevent excessive alcoholic consumption, the ratification of the 18th amendment took place from 1919 to 1939. This established the Prohibition Act, which banned the transportation, manufacturing and selling of an alcoholic beverage. However, illegal production of alcohol continued to take place in secret. Gradually prohibition laws became difficult to enforce. As a result, the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933. In 1984, congress mandated a law which would raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 through the National Minimum Drinking Age. Reasoning for mandating an older drinking age, was to enhance public safety and promote good health. In 1988, all 50 states enforced the drinking age to 21. The concern for the consumption of alcohol have targeted teenagers and young adults

On July 17 of 1984 President Ronald Reagan signed to make the National Minimum Drinking Age Act a law. This law required all states to have a minimum drinking age of 21, if a state did not comply with this law they could face up to a 10% cut in funding for their federal highways (Tietjen). Since this act became a law there has been two distinct sides arguing whether they agree with the minimum drinking age, or whether they disagree. One side believes having a minimum drinking age makes alcohol seem like a “forbidden fruit” of sorts and because people always want what they can’t have, a minimum drinking age makes underage drinking an even bigger problem. The other side of this argument is basically that if a

Even though in this article it states that there are some representatives that would not be for signing the bill for personal reasons, the only other thing that it comes down to from a legislative point of view is transportation funds.

I. Introduction: Starting in 1970 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18. Another 8 reduced it to 19 or 20. However, these states noticed increases in alcohol-related fatalities among teenagers and young adults. As a result, of the 29 states that had lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By 1984, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic liquor. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. The states who raised it were given highway funding by the

A highly controversial topic that continues to rise is the debate of the legal drinking age and whether it should lower from twenty-one, or remain. On July 17, 1984, Ronald Reagan was in office when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed, prohibiting anyone under the age of twenty-one from publicly possessing and purchasing alcohol. After the Act was passed in 1984, the states that failed to abide by Ronald Reagan’s National Minimum Drinking Age Act were withheld from federal highway construction funds. By creating this punishment, states were almost forced to comply with the new legal addition. Every state adopted the new law by the year of 1988 (Underage Drinking). The act itself did take away the majority of drinking privileges, but did not take away the entirety of them. Omissions within the National Minimum Drinking Age Act included consumption for: religious purposes, educational functions, guardian consent, and employment. Some states are stricter on alcohol consumption for minors, while some allow the exceptions within the act. With this new controversial issue put into effect across the entire United States, the population immediately took sides. Although many individuals believe once someone becomes eighteen, and is officially an adult, they should hold the right and responsibility to drink as they please, evidence reveals early alcohol consumption correlates with detrimental health

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.

This discussion has been going on for long on many forums without a decisive conclusion or agreement. This is mainly because both the arguments for lowering the age to 18 years and not lowering have some substantial facts to support them. The people who are against lowering the drinking age come up with a number of arguments which are explained below.

It has been a rising issue within the past century to have the drinking age set at 21, but many people are more in favor of having the age set at 18. For instance, “’Raising the drinking age to 21 was passed with the very best of intentions, but it’s had the very worst of outcomes,’ stated by David J. Hanson, an alcohol policy expert” (Johnson). Many people believe that having the drinking age set at 21 was a smart idea, but it has caused many more deaths and injuries over the years. Most of these fatalities are cause from people who are underage and choose to consume alcohol. Again, “Libertarian groups and some conservative economic foundations, seeing the age limits as having been extorted by Washington, have long championed lowering the drinking age” (Johnson). These groups see that keeping the drinking age set at 21 is dangerous as it causes more problems to the Untied States. If the drinking age was lowered, or set at 18, there would not be such unforgiving outcomes, like deaths and lifelong injuries, which are usually caused from people who are under the age of 21 drinking alcohol. Although there are numerous groups that are fighting to keep the age

On July 1, 1971 the 26th amendment was passed which lowered the minimum age to vote from twenty one to eighteen years old. Shortly after the amendment was passed twenty nine states across America started lowering the drinking age from 21 to either 18,19, or 20 years old. This new freedom for young adults only lasted for a brief time by 1984 the Uniform Drinking Age Act was passed. The Uniform Drinking Age Act forced states to change the drinking age back to twenty one years old; by reducing the federal transportation funding, for each state that did not have a minimum drinking age of21. This act has caused controversy for years, there even is group of 136 college presidents called Amethyst Initiative that support a lower minimum legal

For many years, the debate about the legal drinking age has been prolonged. In the mid-1930s, under the 21st Amendment, the federal law to drink was age 21; however, states were given the option to set their own legal drinking age. During the 1970s, 30 states had a legal drinking age ranging from 18 to 20. Ten years in, the death toll rose from 10 to 40 percent in states that had lowered their drinking age (Barnhill, 2014). After many observations of traffic accidents involving drunk teenagers, the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving or (MADD) acted by educating the public of the dangers of drunk driving, and to speak for stronger drunk driving laws. This received so much publicity that President Reagan signed a bill into

Despite the positive results that have come about since this law was passed, it is pretty clear that it has not prevented people under 21 from obtaining and drinking alcohol. College campuses across the country report problems with students binge drinking and students who drink deliberately to get drunk (Smith). “Today, the generally accepted definition of binge drinking is the consumption of five or more drinks in a row at least once in the past 2 weeks” (Binge). Some of the reasons given for binge drinking range from being curious to trying to escape from the ever-present stress in our lives. The latter reason is more prevalent in college students. “College students are more likely to engage in heavy drinking than their peers who do not attend college with 2 in 5 students nationally engaging in binge drinking on at least 1 occasion in the past 2 weeks” (Wechsler). Some believe that making the drinking age 21 is one cause of the current