Should The Drinking Age Be Lowered?

Well, you are telling me that I can legally kill someone at the age of eighteen, while I sign up with the military and go to war but I can’t have a sip of alcohol. Due to this none senseless situation, age should be equaled. In other words, if voting and military sign up is eighteen, then drinking should also be eighteen. Besides at the age of eighteen you are legally an adult. Why can’t we drink then? Drinking age in Australia is eighteen, and in UK is as low as sixteen in restaurants. Studies have showed that those teens/adults are perfectly fine. In fact, Dr. Ruth Engs; professor of Applied Health Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington, uses this examples to propose the following: “……the drinking age be lowered to about 18 or 19 and permit those of legal age to consume in socially controlled environment such as restaurants and official school and university functions” (direct quote from Dr. Engs).

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.

First, I will discuss why 18 year olds should be entitled to the right to consume alcohol when they hit adulthood, rather than waiting until the age of 21. When you turn 18 years old you’re allowed to vote in elections, get married, smoke, get tried in a court of law as an adult, gamble, get life insurance, and fight in the armed forces

Statistically speaking, there are 195 sovereign countries in the world and only 15 have drinking ages higher than the age of 18, that is only 7.8% of the world. There must be a good explanation for this phenomenon. Some of the most notable countries that have a lower drinking age than 21 are: Germany, France and Canada. There are a few countries that even allow you to buy alcohol at any age, such as: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Comoros and Guinea-Bissau. WHO has reported that Germany’s life expectancy for males is around 76 years old; the life expectancy of Germany seems especially high considering they can drink at a young age, which almost contradicts the American mindset on drinking.

In the U.S., eighteen is the age at which person becomes a legal adult. He or she may then vote, buy cigarettes, join the military, or be arrested. So, why is it that drinking alcohol holds a much different standard? A United States soldier can go to war at eighteen years old. He may then fight for his country and freedom; however, while being away from home for over a year, he is denied the right to enjoy a beer with his buddies. Some nonbelievers try to contradict this argument with the fact that alcohol is damaging to a young brain. It’s true--excessive alcohol can damage a young and developing brain. However, what about smoking? Young adults are permitted to buy cigarettes at the age of eighteen. Cigarettes, a habit that is just as much, if not more, damaging than alcohol, may be purchased by a legal adult. If a person eighteen years of age or older can smoke, despite the fact that smoking is harmful, why can he not drink? Where is the consistency? If twenty-one is to remain the legal drinking age of adults, then all age laws should be raised to twenty-one. It is just that simple.

In the article Why the Drinking Age should be Lowered, Ruth Engs believes that the drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19. Engs is a Professor at Indiana University in the Health and Sciences department. In this article Engs makes a valid point in that “responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs.” Engs also states facts about the different drinking ages in other countries, and that the United States has the highest legal purchasing age for alcoholic beverages in the world.

The legal drinking age in the United States is the only age that is above 19 years of age. Everywhere else in the world the age is 19 and under and some countries don’t even have a drinking age. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because it will help all the problems that come with underage drinking. There is a numerous amount of reasons to change the drinking age to 18 and there are also many opposing thoughts on it as well. Three reasons to lower the drinking age in the US is to stop all of the illegal issues involved with underage drinking, Stop or cut down on the overuse of alcohol and drugs and the changing of adulthood when you turn the age

Should the minimum legal drinking age be lowered? Many people believe 18 yr olds are immature, and cannot handle the responsibility of alcohol. However that is just a biased idea placed on the minds of people by meaningless reality TV, a few irresponsible teens, other media sources.By lowering the MLDA (minimum legall drinking age) the thrill of breaking the law will be lessened, and if 18 year olds are allowed to decide who runs our country, serve in the armed forces, and overall be concidered a legal adult,they should be allowed to drink in moderation, by allowing teens to drink at age 18 the dangers of drinking will considerably be lowered.

The United States’ legal age of adulthood is eighteen. A person may smoke cigarettes, vote in elections, get married, play the lottery, and join the military. If a person can make those decisions at eighteen, why not decisions on their own alcohol consumption?

There are many arguments on why the legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen. To some, lowering the drinking age to eighteen makes sense and to others it does not make sense at all. Most people believe that if eighteen year olds are old enough to make big decisions such as enlist in the Army, Navy, or other Military services then eighteen year olds are old enough to drink also. Not only does lowering the legal drinking age put the drinker at harm but also the people around the drinker. There are so many reasons why the legal drinking age should not be lowered, never less, three valid and proven reasons why the legal drinking age should not be lowered is, the effect on the brain, the safety of the drinker and the people around them, and the number of deaths that will increase.

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.

Should the legal alcohol drinking age be lowered to eighteen? At the age of eighteen years old, you are eligible to vote, you can legally purchase cigarettes, you are eligible for the military draft, you are willing to die for this country, you are even able to serve on a jury, and you are titled as an adult at the age of eighteen. Why can’t someone at the age of eighteen not drink alcohol? Who is to say that just because someone is twenty-one years of age means that they are wise enough to drink alcohol in an accountable conduct? There are several explanations why one ought to be able to drink alcohol at the age of eighteen.

At the age of 18, you’re considered an adult. From your 18th birthday to old age, you’re able to vote, join the military, sign contracts, and several other things that adults can do. It’s able to see how minors, especially from ages 18-20, view this as ‘unfair’. So why, when you are able to do everything else at 18, can’t you drink? Studies have proved that drinking under the age of 21 affects your bodily growth. Brain development continues up into your early 20s, and the use of alcohol can harm the brain and the process of development. Activities such as voting and signing contracts aren’t neurologically or physically damaging as they are not consumed like alcohol is. It is definitely important for your brain to fully develop and such a high legal drinking age helps enforce and protect the development process.It’s confusing how the drinking age is not the same as the age of initiation for several other things, including officially becoming an ‘adult’, but the reason behind it is actually helping several underaged

The law recognizes citizens at the age of eighteen as legal adults: “adults should have the right to make their own decisions about alcohol consumption”(“Drinking Age”). Legal adulthood consequently, comes with different types of rights and responsibilities. Once people reach the age of eighteen they receive the right to vote, to smoke, to have consensual sex, and to marry without parental consent. This gives them the ability to make decisions for the future of the country by voting, to do something that could affect their health, to do something that could result in a baby, which creates additional responsibility, and to start a new family through marriage without their parents’ permission. The responsibilities of being a legal adult include having total responsibility for one's actions and being trusted not to break the law since an eighteen-year-old can be charged as an adult now. A person at the age of eighteen could be in charge of someone's life through serving on a jury in major court cases, such as murders. The law also requires that all males at the age of

The drinking age set by the U.S government should be lowered to the age of 18, just as other countries such as Kansas or Texas. The drinking age in the United States has been a rather controversial topic throughout the years. It has all rather depended on the times we ¬¬are currently living in. As a teen in these times, I know for a fact that most individuals are drinking even before the age of 21. Our parents have almost always told us about times that they have gotten “hammered” back when they were young with their friends. I know this because my mother has told me most of her stories that relate to either her and her friends getting intoxicated at some bar. There are many factors that have one contribution, or several, as to why the drinking age should be lowered to the age of 18. There are countless reasons as to why individuals may drink alcohol. Depression, anxiety, peer pressure, rebellion, boredom, celebrations, special occasions, family history, and these are merely a handful of the many other reasons individuals drink. Considering the reasons that were stated, most of those individuals are not even within the legal range to consume, nor purchase alcohol. The age ranges from those who are in high school to college, but it all mainly occurs within individuals in the age range of a high school students (freshmen and seniors alike).