“In America, eighteen-year-olds can vote, operate a motor vehicle, pay taxes, marry, become a legal guardian, own a gun, fight and die in a foreign country….”(Fulton). An argument can be made that those responsibilities outweigh the responsibility of consuming alcohol .After prohibition ended in America, states were allowed to choose their own drinking age. In the 1970’s, 30 states lowered their drinking age to tie into the 26th amendment lowering of the voting age to 18. In 1984 US congress decided they would put a ten percent cut to infrastructure funding to states who did not adopt a 21 year old drinking age. Many countries around the world have a legal drinking age or 18 years old and sometimes even younger. There are only three other countries that have a drinking age of 21 years old and those countries are Mongolia, Indonesia, and Palau. After prohibition ended in America states were allowed to choose their own drinking age. Many states decided to match the drinking age with the national voting age, which is 18. The United States Of America is pledged with underage drinking problems and DUIs. Lowering the legal drinking age can help limit those problems and even save lives. Having a drinking age of 18 years old will lower DUI and drinking related charges, reduce binge drinking, and save lives . The primary statistic that stands out when comparing America to countries with a lower drinking age is the rate of drinking related crimes. Alcohol inhibits a person from
A lot of people have different opinions on the legal age of alcohol consumption. Some countries have the age lowered to eighteen and, the United States has it set at twenty-one. In Canada, it is typically up to the parents if the children drink and a lot of the kids are raised drinking beer with meals; therefore, it is pretty laid back in Canada regarding alcohol consumption. The drinking age being lowered could immensely change things around America; students would be at lower risk of alcohol-related deaths, there would not be chances of identity theft from ordering things such as ID’s from foreign countries, college campuses would have a lot lower arrest rates and it gives students and people eighteen years of age a sense of
More than half of American youth of age twelve to twenty have tried alcohol. In the United States, the legal drinking age is twenty-one. Austria legal drinking age for beer and wine is sixteen years old. In Saudi Arabia drinking or possessing alcohol is illegal, and people who drink or possess alcohol are subject to arrest and trial. The problematic argument is whether to lower the legal age of drinking alcohol. And some question this motive because underage and binge drinking have multiple risk factors- that can lead to car accidents, violent behavior, alcohol poisoning, and other health problems. The legal age of drinking has justified because of factors affecting the risk of developing a drinking problem at a young age. Potential targets
The article from Jay Evensen oppose the idea of lowering the age-limit for drinking to 18. He oppose the idea because he believe that by lowering the drinking age, there will be an increase in mortality for the youth (which in this case below 21). He believes that it is true that the 21-years-old drinking age creates lots of binge drinking activities, but it is not the solution to lower the drinking age because the cost that might happened will be even worse. He stated that “there really is no logical connection between being old enough to qualify as a fit and effective soldier and making mature drinking decisions. Rental car companies understand this, which is why they generally don’t trust their cars to anyone under 25”.
Eighteen should be the legal age of adults in United States for using alcohol. There are three reasons to support this contention. First of all, the development of people’s brain will not be completed until people become 25 years old. Therefore, although drinking alcohol may cause some affects the brain, there is no evidence of huge brain destruction, alcohol dependency, or alcohol misuse, which the experts tell us will be the undeniable result of the lowering the age in the United States. Moreover, the prohibition should not be imposed on young people because using alcohol is belong to a person’s consciousness, nor it is belong to an behavior. Second, there are fewer traffic accidents by drunk drivers in many nations with Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 18 (MLDA) than in The United States. In fact, many traffic accidents from driving do not come from drinking, they come from other reasons, which are speeding, distracted driving, and traffic occurrences. In addition, some States denied the lowering minimum drinking age because they will not have ten percents traffic funding from the government, so this purpose is not unfair for people who turn in to eighteen. As shown above, lowering minimum drinking age should be considered explicitly. Last, law of government allows people to go to the army at eighteen because they can sacrifice for their country. In fact, that young people are risking their life with other agents more dangerous than alcohol agents. People who are attending
A big question pondered in the United States is why the legal drinking age is twenty-one. The United States people don’t understand why eighteen year old can die fighting for their country, but cannot legally drink until the age of twenty-one. If you have ever talked to someone who was born in the 1970s or earlier, they might have told you that they could legally drink under the age of twenty-one. This is true because each state is responsible for setting their own minimum legal drinking age; not the federal government. States are responsible for setting the drinking age based on the concept of federalism. Congress eventually passes the National Minimum Drinking Act of 1984. According to www.legalflip.com, the Act basically states that if you want money from the federal government that you’re entitled to for road and transportation systems, you will raise the drinking age to twenty-one years old. Some states refused to change the age, but by 1988 changed the age to twenty-one even if they didn’t want to, so they could get money from the federal government. I believe that the legal age should remain at twenty-one. A few reasons of why I believe that is because a lower drinking age would be unsafe, nine hundred lives yearly have been saved by keeping the drinking age at twenty-one, and lastly another critical reason not to lower the drinking age is the prevalence of binge drinking.
Controversy states all 50 United States have set their minimum drinking age to twenty one although exceptions do not exist on a state- by- state basis for consumption at home, under adult supervision, for mental necessity and other reasons. Supporters of lowering the minimum legal drinking age, which is 21 argue that it has not stopped teen drinking, and has instead pushed underage binge drinking leading into more health problems and life- endangering behavior by teens. Teens tend to not handle alcohol at such a young age. Other countries have raised the prices of alcohol and encouraged the public to drink less. Alcohol is a drug that depresses the whole body. Starting with the first drink, alcohol begins to slow down judgment, coordination, and reaction time. As alcohol levels get higher, breathing and heart rate slow down and even can stop.
Your daughter is driving home one Friday evening, after a late shift working at the local hospital. It’s dark out, and suddenly headlights are coming towards her. Before she has time to avoid the oncoming car, she gets hit head on. The cops appear at the scene--she is pronounced dead--the other driver, an eighteen year old, is transported to the hospital in handcuffs: arrested for drunk driving, and illegal consumption of alcohol. Now you are left without a daughter. Forever devastated by the loss, your families’ lives have been changed forever.
Usually some people suffer from depression, anxiety or have peer pressure due to work or school which leads them to heavy drinking. Due to the stress and the immaturity of teenagers, they fall quickly into the hands of alcohol even though they are underage. Teenagers have easy access to alcohol either through older teenagers that buy it for them or in parties even though it is illegal for them to consume for being underage. Underage college students sometimes overdose due to finally having easy access to alcohol in college parties. I think due to teenagers not being mature enough nor are responsible enough to handle too much alcohol inside of them, the government should not lower the drinking age. Lowering the drinking age will increase the death and accident rate.
In-The-21-year-old drinking age: I voted for it; it doesn't work by Morris E Chafetz. Chafetz voted yes on a bill to make the minimum drinking age to 21. He knew he had made a mistake. Chafetz even says “It is the single most regrettable decision of my entire professional career”(526). He goes on and talks about how this drinking age was assigned to stop drunk driving deaths which it did but it also increases in alcohol related deaths off roadways. Chafetz goes on and tells us of he founded The National Institute For Alcoholism And Alcohol Abuse in 1970. He believes that the drinking age should be lowered or even abandoned altogether because the problem isn't the drink it's the drinker. In-The-21-year-old drinking age: I voted for it; it doesn't work by Morris E Chafetz. Chafetz work did not persuade me to think we needed to lower the drinking age. He never showed the opposition views and his sources were outdated and at times nowhere to be found.
The drinking age in the United States was set at 21 in 1984 and has been a dismal failure ever since and should be changed back to 18. As adults in the eyes of the law 18 year olds should be allowed to consume alcohol. With this change we can eliminate some of the workload of our police officers and judicial system. We can eliminate some of the hideous, yet ever present, habits of binge drinking that occur in the 18-20 age group. Further the benefits to the economy both locally and nationally would be a welcome benefit of the change. In a world that strives for political correctness and fairness the age discrimination and power mongering of the government needs to stop and the right to legally consume alcohol at the age of 18 must be granted.
“Alcohol is the drug of choice among America’s adolescents, used by more young people than tobacco or illicit drugs” (ProCon). Nearly everyone has an opinion on what the legal drinking age should be, as it varies worldwide. For example, one out of one hundred and ninety countries have a drinking age of eighteen or nineteen years old. The United States of America holds the highest minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of twenty-one, with the exception for parts of India where the drinking age is twenty-five or thirty (ProCon). The legal drinking age should be decreased to eighteen. Considering people are a legal adult at the age of eighteen. Lowering the legal drinking age would decrease unsafe drinking by providing a safe drinking environment such as restaurants and bars, minimalizing dangerous, unsafe drinking activities (Guye). Lowering the drinking age would prevent young adults from wanting to drink irresponsibly in a rebellious manor.
Over the course of the last few decades, the discussion of whether the drinking age should remain at 21 or should be lowered has become a very controversial topic. While there are some doubts on lowering the drinking age to 18, there are many pros as to why we should keep the drinking age at 21, especially in an underage drinking environment. The discussion will move from the possibilities of alcohol abuse and its percusion, to the loopholes the laws and legislations concerning the use of alcohol and the minimum legal age. The conflict between lowering the drinking age and favoring the change also can cause a possible set back to trying to lower the drinking age.
An estimated 88,000 people die due to alcohol related incidents in the U.S. each year (WELLWVU). This is the fourth most preventable cause of death in the United States and kills thousands of underage citizens each year. These numbers are not declining but yet people are proposing the country lowers the legal drinking age? After looking at statistics from the U.S. and how other countries are affected by their legal drinking ages one would come to a conclusion that 21 is an appropriate age for the United States. Since young adults have the responsibility of making their own decisions, and consuming alcohol is one of them, but due to binge drinking, impaired driving, and increased crime rates, alcohol should be off limits to those under the age of 21.
John McCardell believes that if the drinking age were lowered, 18 year olds who have, “completed high school, attended an alcohol-education course (that consists of more than temperance lectures and scare tactics), and kept a clean record,” could be allowed to drink with limited safety risks. David J. Hanson, Phd., a Professor of Sociology at State University of New York at Potsdam, corroborates that, “We should do with drinking what has proven successful with driving. That is, we should issue drinking learner permits to qualified adults age 18 through 20,” (Kiernan).
The drinking age has always been an issue in the United States. There are very many people that essentially argue at what age particularly young adults should be allowed to legally drink, which is fairly significant. People think that Congress should lower the drinking age to 18 years old, and others specifically argue that the legal age should remain at twenty-one in a major way. In the first place, the legal age should be lowered to eighteen years old.When a person reaches the age of 18 they are viewed as an adult in society, which is fairly significant. They essentially are entitled to their responsibilities and accomplishing things on their sort of own. Young adults actually are allowed to vote, smoke cigarettes, actually get married, and even join the kind of military in a major way. If really young adults are allowed to risk their lives for their country, then they should be allowed to drink legally. Furthermore, when people really begin to drink at a younger age, “diminishes the thrill of breaking the law to get a drink”(Should the Drinking Age generally Be for all intents and purposes Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?, 2017). For example, when starting to drink at a younger age, by the time getting into college are not going to literally want to drink a much. College students tend to drink more since you turn of age while you actually are at college. Lowering the drinking age would really diminish that thrill of drinking in college. “Normalizing alcohol consumption