Should the Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered?

While the brain of an 18 year old still has not completely stopped developing, they have multiple other life-altering choices to make. When someone turns 18 they legally turn into an adult. One now has the ability to vote, enlist in the military, purchase tobacco products, and get married without the consent of a parental figure. These choices have potential to greatly impact the lives of the people making these decisions. Whether they select who they wish to run the country, start a life with someone, or put their life at risk these decisions require the thinking and decision-making process of an adult. If one has the ability to act on these choices, they should also have the opportunity to participate in purchasing and consuming alcoholic beverages, if they choose to do so.

Many Americans do not feel like adults until their 21st birthday. At age 18 an American has the ability to vote, be drafted or enlist into the military, own a weapon, request a loan, get married, buy cigarettes and many more liberties and consequences that come when a teenager becomes an adult. Nonetheless, in the United States and adult does not have the ability to legally drink until the age of 21. I find the regulation of alcohol necessary and as a protection for the citizens because, as the article “Effects of Alcohol Use” states, the abuse of alcohol contributes to liver damage, leads into driving under the influence, domestic violence and in the long term it can cause cancer and death of brain cells. However, I believe that the alcohol regulation is bias and should be at the same level of liberty as voting, joining the military, owning a weapon, buying cigarettes, requesting a loan and getting married.

It has been a rising issue within the past century to have the drinking age set at 21, but many people are more in favor of having the age set at 18. For instance, “’Raising the drinking age to 21 was passed with the very best of intentions, but it’s had the very worst of outcomes,’ stated by David J. Hanson, an alcohol policy expert” (Johnson). Many people believe that having the drinking age set at 21 was a smart idea, but it has caused many more deaths and injuries over the years. Most of these fatalities are cause from people who are underage and choose to consume alcohol. Again, “Libertarian groups and some conservative economic foundations, seeing the age limits as having been extorted by Washington, have long championed lowering the drinking age” (Johnson). These groups see that keeping the drinking age set at 21 is dangerous as it causes more problems to the Untied States. If the drinking age was lowered, or set at 18, there would not be such unforgiving outcomes, like deaths and lifelong injuries, which are usually caused from people who are under the age of 21 drinking alcohol. Although there are numerous groups that are fighting to keep the age

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.”

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).

According to Alexis Aguirre in The University Star, “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” (Aguirre). Sure enough, if the drinking age were lowered to 18 it would avoid the illegal, abused intake of alcohol by 18 year olds. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, “Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking” (U.S Department of Health and Human Services). A way of avoiding such tragedies is lowering the drinking age to 18, teaching younger

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

Consuming alcohol is considered a rite of passage for the average young individual. The minimum drinking age required to legally consume alcohol varies in each country, ranging from it always being legal to drinking being illegal at any age, but most countries have set the age at 18-19. In the United States, as of 1988, the MLDA is 21 throughout its entire territory, while the age of majority starts at 18. This paper analyzes the arguments to lower the minimum drinking age and unify it with the age of majority. The factors discussed are alcohol-related traffic accidents, encouragement of unsafe drinking habits, and inconsistency between the perception of adulthood and the MLDA.

An abundance of people start to drink during young adulthood. In the last 30 days roughly 39% of high schoolers drank some amount of alcohol (CDC). Alcohol has been around for tens of thousands of years and it’s always been an underlying issue. My question is, “Why should we lower the legal drinking age”? Current proposals to lower the minimum legal drinking age to 18 would have some benefits like increasing revenue for bars and liquor stores. However the risks surpass the benefits. Many people think that if you’re 18 you’re portrayed as an adult, you’re old enough to serve your country, vote, and make your own decisions. In some cases this could be true, but lowering the drinking age would be way too risky for themselves and others. There was a telephone survey done in Princeton, NJ on July 12-15, 2007 that questioned 1,001 people 18 and older if the minimum legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. The results were 77% of the people said that they would disagree with this proposal, and only 22% said that they would support it (Carroll). The minimum drinking age of 21 should not be lowered to 18, because 18 year olds tend to drink in a different way than more matured adults drink. They’re irresponsible when it comes to drinking because they drink to get drunk. As a result, there are more DUI arrests, the motor vehicle accident rate increases, and binge drinking raises health concerns.

Should the United States follow other countries in their quest to end the debate on the drinking age? The United States can take a look at other States such as: Germany, the Netherlands and France, and see how successful they are. Many teenagers would jump on the bandwagon of lowering the drinking age just because they want to have the ability to drink, the argument of being able to die for the United States but can’t drink and it would take away the “Forbidden Fruit” of drinking. Much of the older generations would jump on the bandwagon of keeping the drinking age the same because they had to wait to drink, because drinking has adverse effects on the brain and drinking could lead to binge drinking.

The debate of the drinking age has been long discussed throughout America. The drinking age has been 21 for the last 22 years, and people around the country have wondered weather or not this was the right call. People say that 18 year olds may not be mature enough to drink alcohol and might not know when to stop. It isn’t that teenagers don’t know how to stop, but rather have not been properly taught when enough has been consumed or how to drink responsibly. Changing the drinking age from 21 to 18 years old will take the thrill that teens get from breaking the law while drinking, will no longer give them the idea that drinking is the final stage of adulthood and full maturity, and will no longer force teenagers to drink in unsupervised

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.

“We can’t stop kids from drinking, so why don’t we just lower the drinking age back down to 18? They are adults for all other purposes. Eighteen year-olds can vote, smoke, marry, pay taxes, take out loans, hold public office, serve on a jury and fight for their country, so what’s the big deal? Let’s stop spending all this tax money and law enforcement officer time fighting a losing battle!”(https://4prevention.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/the-top-five-reasons-we-should-keep-the-drinking-age-at-21/ ) I’m sure you may have heard comments such as these quite often. This question has become very important over a period of years and was first asked when the legal drinking age became 21. Should the legal drinking age be lowered (18) or remain at age 21?

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?

The drinking age in America should be lowered from 21 to 18. At 18, someone in America is legally considered an adult, and they can indulge in things that are potentially far more harmful than alcohol. Under certain circumstances, alcohol has already been permitted for people under the age of 21. Furthermore, the drinking age of 21 is ineffective because people between the ages of 18 to 21 are still drinking regardless. However, this drinking often takes the shape of dangerous binge drinking. Many college deans, who have first-hand knowledge of how ineffective the current drinking age is, are in support of a lower drinking age. Reckless alcohol behavior of uneducated underage drinkers also leads to drunk driving, instead of confiding in