Research Paper On Drunk Driving

There is controversy about whether the drinking age should be lowered, raised, or remain the same. My opinion is that the drinking age should remain the same. Teenagers still receive alcohol one way or another, and lowering the age would cause more of a problem. When the drinking age was raised to twenty-one in 1984, the amount of underage drinking dropped significantly, and still drops today. If the drinking age was raised, it would be unfair to those who are of the proper age where the maturity level is much greater than a teenager. At the age of twenty-one, the brain is far more developed than a teenager’s brain.

A lower drinking age law would save even more lives and also stop minors from drinking under the limit. Having it higher will result in more traffic injuries and fatalities among youth. A lower drinking age is effective in preventing alcohol-related deaths and injuries among youth. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heavy drinking age. According to John McCardell, founder of Choose Responsibility, the legal drinking age does not eliminate consumption among young people. Instead, it only drives underage drinking underground, creating a dangerous culture of irresponsible and extreme drinking. Although the legal purchase age is 21 years of age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing "forbidden fruit," a "badge of rebellion against authority" and a symbol of "adulthood."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. “For example, 22% of all students under 21 compared to 18% over 21 years of age are heavy drinkers.” “Among drinkers only, 32% of underage compared to 24% of legal age are heavy drinkers.”

Drinking age should be lowered, and I know that by lowering it we can drop the percentage of reckless teen alcohol abusers. It is worth trying it , and if everything goes the opposite then change the law once more which is done lots of times, for dumb reasons and raise the drinking age back to twenty-one. Changes are always good most of the times, and I know this one in particular is an excellent

The legal drinking age in the United States is 21, while in other countries the legal age ranges from 16-18. The argument in the United States is “Should the United States lower its drinking age?” There are many sides to this argument but research has given many good points to back up both sides of the question. First thing is the difference between a teen’s brain with alcohol and an adult’s brain with alcohol. Another thing is drinking at a younger age can help teach culture. Lastly the more alcohol exposed the increase in death rate. I believe that it is a good idea to keep the legal drinking age at age 21 because in our past we have had many problems with death increases due to the drinking age being at different ages and the research used uses pathos, logos, ethos and Kairos to help persuade the reader support that 21 should stay the legal drinking age.

Drinking and driving is still a problem today, and can even be seen in young adults. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was instituted to reduce drunk driving. According to Michelle Minton, a fellow in consumer policy studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, states due to this act “ages of 18 and 21 actually increased traffic fatalities of those between the ages of 18 and 24 by three percent.” (Minton 22). Having an increase of three percent in traffic fatalities is by no means a small portion of the total deaths, with just an increase of three percent, many more young American adults have passed away, which could have easily been prevented. Even Anne McCartt, a vice president

In 1984, the United States’ federal government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Under this act, the federal government gives highway funds to States that forbid people under the age of twenty-one years old from “purchasing or publicly possessing alcoholic beverages”(23 U.S.C. § 158). The incentive created a sense of a standardized minimum drinking age when legally there cannot be a federal minimum drinking age. Even though this Act has been in effect for decades, there are many debates on whether or not the age should be changed. The minimum legal drinking age should stay the same because it prevents a large number of drinking and driving accidents; it reduces overall alcohol consumption; and it has very horrible health effects on youth.

Studies show that keeping the drinking age at twenty-one improves lives. When the United States raised the age limit to twenty-one in 1985, a shortage of drinking occurred at a whopping 40% by 1991. As a result, fewer students drop out of high school, less motor accidents occur, and suicides rates dropped significantly. However, lowering the drinking age to eighteen will bring serious consequences on young adults by reversing these statistics. Lowering the drinking age will cause significant health problems, draw youth to poor judgment situations, before they are even old enough to handle the responsibility of drinking.

Shortly after, all 50 states decided to raise the drinking age back up to twenty one because they were afraid of losing a portion of federal highway money, this is also known as the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Michael Gonchar quotes Gabrielle Glaser, who is in favor of returning the drinking age back down to eighteen, and states that teaching people to drink more responsibly before they turn twenty one would enormously enhance public health. The current law was to try and help decrease the number of traffic deaths caused by young drunk drivers. This law has been successful, but the tougher seat belt and D.U.I rules have also contributed. But what people are failing to realize is the raising the drinking age hasn’t stopped underaged drinking rather it increased underaged drinking. During prohibition in the United States which was from 1920 through 1933, people’s goal was to drink as much as they could before the feds would show up. Now i know what you are thinking, this has nothing to do with the topic, but it indeed does. Even though prohibition is not around anymore, that is what it is like for people underage. Especially college students, they drink as much as they can and get completely wasted before the cops show up and that’s why people do not want to lower the drinking age because of the fact that it is a

Since the drinking age was raised to 21 years old in 1984, underage drinking and driving have gone down by 54% since 1991 according to the CDC. The number of alcohol-related deaths among 16-20 year-olds in the U.S. decreased from 5,244 in 1982 to 1,987 in 2008 after the raising of the drinking age. 16-20-year-olds are 17 times more likely to die in a car crash when their blood alcohol levels are higher than 0.08%. Today alcohol is involved in 37% of all traffic deaths among persons aged 16 to 20 so if we were to lower it to 18, then it would make that drastically higher. Raising the drinking age did help and prevent many accidents and it also helps prevent unnecessary

The final reason the legal drinking age should not be lowered is because of alcohol related motor accidents. Drunk driving is an enormous public safety issue and is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S alone. Attorney Rich Stim says, “Although drivers under the age of 21 represent 10 percent of licensed drivers they are responsible for 17 percent of fatal alcohol-related crashes. Approximately 2,000 underage drinkers die each year behind the wheel and alcohol is a factor in a third of all teenage auto fatalities”. (Stim) Lowering the drinking age would make alcohol related fatalities rise immensely. When young people drink and get into a car, they tend to make irresponsible decisions that may put them in danger. For example, young

Should the age drinking be lowered in the US to 18 years old? For the past 25 years there has been a lot of talk about changing the drinking age limit. Some States back in the 1970’s try this approach and weren’t successful. Evidence show that between 1970 and 1975, the states that lowered their minimum legal drinking age to 18 suffered significant teenage traffic fatalities. Young teens have not reached an age where they can handle alcohol responsibly and are more likely to harm themselves or someone else by drinking before they turn 21. This led to a movement to reestablish the minimum legal age drinking back 21. 16 states increase their drinking age to 21 between 1976 and 1983. In 1984 The Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act signed by President Ronald Reagan put a stop to all this changes. He threatened to hold back all highway construction funds from all the states that did not increase their drinking age. By 1988 all stated had a minimum legal drinking age of 21. Does the minimum legal drinking age help

By 1970 nearly all states lowered the drinking age to eighteen but in 1984 in response to a drunk driving epidemic, President Ronald Reagan passed the Minimum Drinking Age Act in July 1984 increasing the drinking age to twenty-one.(p.2). Drinking will happen illegally no matter what the age limit is. Lowering the legal age to eighteen will allow more people to drink responsibly because more individuals will drink in public and it can be supervised by either police, security guards or adults like parents. The counterargument that many people have is that the law was changed to twenty-one due to the fact of how many adolescents were getting in car accidents. Many of them believed it was due to drunk driving but, changing the law to twenty-one didn’t change much. Studies show that as of 2016 individuals whose ages ranged from 16-20 there was a total of 800 drunk driving accidents (drunk driving age group graph). Seems like a lot but the number of drunk driving accidents that happen for the ages that legally can drink are even higher. From the ages twenty-one through twenty four a total of 1,400 drunk driving accidents occurred. The first 3 years of being able to legally drinking are years where individuals learn how to responsibly drink by irresponsibly drinking, causing more drunk driving accidents for that age group. If the legal drinking age was to be

The expense and limited availability of liquor also helped keep it out of youthful hands”(35). When the drinking age was lowered in between 1970 and 1976 the amount of highway deaths skyrocketed, this was due to drunk driving incidents being of the majority and quickly led most of the states to set the age back from 18 to 21 how it had been originally (Main 35).I understand that this may be a tragedy in itself considering we could have had a reasonable drinking age if people would have been taught about the dangers of alcohol and drunkenness in general. That is why i believe we would be better with integrating a lower drinking age, most people know not to drive drunk and drink responsibly there have been commercials about it and it even says it on the cans and bottles.

The legal drinking age should not be a common controversial topic of debate that people argue about time and time again. It is so obvious to see that when the law was passed to make the legal drinking age twenty-one years, it was the best decision for our nation. Alcohol is the main drug problem for the youth in the United States and as well as the world. This problem is carried over when teenagers get behind the wheel while intoxicated. Although, from studies carried out, young drivers are less likely to drink and drive however the severity of accidents caused by drunken teens outweighs the accidents caused by adults. The legal drinking age should remain as is and there are countless reasons to back this claim.

The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions erode and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make you do some things you would not want to and to repeat your past mistakes. More than one-third of drives arrested for intoxication are repeat offenders. Drivers with a prior DUI offense have a much higher likelihood to be in a fatal crash. (National Commission Against Drunk Driving, 2003). Repeat offenders also face the risk of ruining their own lives. They have the risk of possibility losing their license and that could also result in the losing of their jobs if their employer finds out about the conviction.