Should the Drinking Age Be Raised to 21?

“ although there hadn’t been much change in recent years, this upturn is cause for concern,” he says. “Furthermore, the age at which youth first drink has steadily declined since 1965- it’s now about 12- and the number who first drink,ages12 to 17, has significantly increased from 2.2 million in 1995 to 3.1 million in 2000.” (n.p) All of this shows the increase of underage drinking.

The grouped vertical bar graph shows that, in 2013, less than 0.1% of teenagers aged 12–17 drank daily. This proportion increased with each age group to 14.6% for those aged 70 and over. The proportion of daily drinkers declined between 2004 and 2013 for all age groups. The grouped vertical bar graph shows that, in 2013, less than 0.1% of teenagers aged 12–17 drank daily. This proportion increased with each age group to 14.6% for those aged 70 and over. The proportion of daily drinkers declined between 2004 and 2013 for all age

Is the media’s portrayal of adolescent drinking accurate? Yes, it is. To many individuals, Alcohol is only a drink, but it is a lot more than that, it's an addictive drug. 60% of young adults have tried alcohol earlier than the age of 14, and the numbers of under aged drinkers is rising. Adolescents begin drinking for a lot of reasons - given that they are bored, due to peer pressure, and quite simply because there is nothing else to do. The national Drug research Institute observed females aged 14 to 17 have been worse abusers of alcohol than 18 to 24-year old guys. In other records, it suggests that eighty percent of under 18-year-olds drink, 50 percentage binge drink. Also around 10 percent of 12 year olds drink.

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

There has been a debate on lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. There are many reasons why this policy should not be passed. At the age of eighteen in the United States one is considered as an adult to make there own decisions, vote, and are allowed to buy Tabaco. Drinking is not one of them. Studies have shown that there are scientific reasons this should not happen. First drinking can be very harmful to the body, causing severe symptoms. Second the drinking and driving rate would increase. Finally, eighteen year olds are not as mature as twenty-one year olds. They are not as fully developed as twenty-one year olds. All of these are factors that contribute to why the drinking age should not be lowered.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Many young people are facing the consequences of excessive drinking, at a too early age. Because of this issue, underage drinking is a leading public health problem. Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking including about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings (1–5).

Several states like Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maine in the United States of America lowered their drinking ages to 18. As a direct result there was increase in alcohol related clashes. This clearly shows that the teenagers are not ready to be left to drink freely. This situation can be attributed to the fact that the

In Australia and throughout other western countries, the misuse of alcohol by young people has been highlighted as a problem (Toumbourou et al 2003).

Consuming alcohol at 18 years of age can interfere with the development of the young adult’s brain and studies show “physical changes in the brain and evidence of impaired problem solving and other cognitive functioning”. This results in influencing the child’s ability to reach their full educational potential. An article from Oct 2015 ‘15 Shots of Vodka Killed Our Daughter’ by Andrea Todd explains the death of 17 year-old Shelby Allen and is just one example of the influence alcohol has on young adults. Shelby was at a party where she and her 18 year old friends had decided to take shots. Her friends state that they wanted to see how many shots it would take for them to pass out. Eventually 15 shots later, Shelby’s body was unable to comprehend the toxicity of the alcohol and had died. This article is just one of the many stories where young adults are clearly unaware of the dangers of alcohol and its alarming consequences. Through surveying different age groups of societies we were able to identify that young adults where greatly more unaware of the health problems associated with consuming alcohol rather than adults. This alone indicates that older adults of 21 years and over have better knowledge on the dangers of alcohol and its impacts. The need to increase the drinking age to 21 years of age is indicated through health studies,

Annually, about 4,300 people under age 21 die from injuries involving underage drinking. Where I stand on this argument is that adolescent drinking is on the rise and is fast becoming one of Australia’s biggest problems. This problem is easy to see and it’s hard not to notice with the amount of TV coverage and social media trends. The amount of surveys showing that drinking more and drinking younger is what teenagers are doing.

     Teenagers rarely think before they do many things. Many times teenagers go to big blowouts or little get togethers with their friends. Their first thought is not about death, their grades, or alcoholism; their main purpose is to get drunk fast and sober up before going home by their set curfews. At parties, teenagers have an average of five or more beers in one night. In the United States teenage drinking has become a major problem, with about 3.3 million teens as problem drinkers. ?One-fourth of all seventh through twelfth graders admit to drinking at least once a week?(Nielson 47). About forty percent of twelfth graders said they had one episode of heavy drinking in the past two weeks. Although no one knows why teens turn to drinking, various studies show that the amount of alcohol changes by their geographical location (Nielsen 47).

Adolescence drinking has become a massive concern, as children at the age of 11-13 are starting to try drinking in one form or another. Every few years the average age of drinking gets lower and lower as more children are now exposed to more media influences and peer pressure. These statistics are mostly ignored or over looked upon as most people think there fake, not seeing the big picture that adolescent drinking has become. If the portrayal of adolescent drinking is continuously ignored and not taken into thought, the age of drinking will continue to drop and adolescent drinking will continuously rise soon becoming a dangerous

Alcohol has been severely damaging young individuals health both mentally and physically. Even though alcohol can be harmful at any age it is especially dangerous for teens as their brains are still developing and cannot cope with alcohol the same way as an adult can. When consumed

After analysis from the teenager’s point of view, another factor is social and welfare organisations. Nutritionists and doctors are particularly worried because the trend seems to be that more and more teenagers catch onto drinking and that they choose stronger spirits, which poses particularly large problem both for themselves and the society. Since higher alcoholicity makes the teenagers get drunk sooner and most of the consumers are young women, it increases the possibility that teenagers get pregnant and violated after they loose their mind (Harvey, 2008.). Statics show that 8% increase of abortion in

Alcohol consumption in the UK has a clear tradition of having moderate and heavy drinking as seen in Plant and Plant 's (2006) analysis of trends in alcohol consumption. It is also notable that most concerns about levels of alcohol consumption is directed particularly towards young people which most consider to be a link to crime and anti-social behaviour. As a result, there is no denying that a stigma has been attached to young people and alcohol. In the UK, general consumption is on a rise. Data from the British Beer and Pub Association (2006) indicate that the level of alcohol consumed has been rising over the last 50 years. There are noticeable differences in patterns of alcohol consumption in accordance with age. The highest level