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Should The Age Lowering The Drinking Age Essay

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Should drinking age be lowered? In 1933, the 21st Amendment expressed the legislative rights of states that states could set their own alcohol consumption laws. As a result, the minimum drinking age became various among different states.While most of the states have a drinking age of 21 years old, illinois(1933-1961) and Oklahoma (1933-1976) setup the minimum drinking age of 21 for men and 18 for women. That difference finally lead to the 1976 US Supreme Court case Craig v. Boren, which states the alcohol drinking age differences between men and women violate the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment of American Constitution, and 30 states lowered their minimum drinking age for both men and women to 18 to fix the violation toward 14th Amendment. However, the lower drinking age caused the increasing of teenager car accident. So, in 1984, the congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act to rise the national drinking age back to 21. Although there were no more big changes about national legal drinking age after that, a controversy of a reasonable drinking age was raised among citizens after experiencing the frequent changes of drinking age. Some people believe a lower drinking age is needed, while others think the drinking age should stay same (ProCon.org).
For those who support lower the drinking age, set 21 as the legal drinking age is a form of age discrimination. Drinking alcohol should be the right of adult and 18 is a equatable age for adulthood

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