The Drinking Age Should Be Lowered

Most people would concur that alcohol should not be given to teenagers. Despite the fact that we concede to this essential truth, underage drinking is still a noteworthy issue in our nation. Since adolescents need development and information with regards to liquor, they put themselves, as well as others in incredible danger when they decide to consume. Regardless of the risk, there are individuals out there who believe that the drinking age should be lowered.

It’s no doubt that alcohol has a major sway on today’s society across the board both culturally and globally. When we take a look into past history, we can see how alcohol has been the fundamental measures to religious, professional, and social concerns. It seems that no matter how far our history books go back, the United States has had a question about the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Through the years of Prohibition halting the sale, shipping, and ingestion of alcohol and the constitutional acts delegating who is accurately fit to drink. Today’s controversy is a lot less infringing on personal rights. It’s regarding whether the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. This has been a huge controversy geared exclusively towards college students due to the fact that alcohol consumption at universities is the definitive part of campus life even though the greater part of students are not legally permitted to drink. It is apparent that through the regularity and risks of binge drinking across universities and the high percentage of DUI and alcohol related fatal crashes, that something needs to shift in this country. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen would be an expedient and positive step in reducing binge drinking, nurturing the safe practice of drinking alcohol, and permitting those students of legal drinking age the chance to fully and sensibly make mature adult choices.

In recent discussions of the drinking age limit, people have always said that the drinking age limit should be lowered. Some may argue that alcohol is not bad and that it can actually be beneficially. Many people would want the drinking age limit to be lowered so that it is legal for young adults to drink. If the drinking age limit were to be lowered there would be a drastic difference in society. In my perspective I will argue that the drinking age limit should not be lowered.

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

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.

Alcohol is usually sought after within the adolescent community and has been an issue among young people. On July 17th 1984, congress passed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which enforces the legal drinking age and purchasing of alcohol in the United States to be twenty-one. Since then, the debated idea of whether or not the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen has been an ongoing topic for decades. Alcoholism affects many people in the United States but promoting it at such young age would not be such a great idea for the youths in today’s society.The drinking age should not be lowered due to the fact that it poses many dangers in the lives of teenaegers especially brain damages, underage drinking has declined since 1984, enforcing alcohol among teenagers may cause an increase in drunk driving and deaths and most importantly, teenagers who start drinking at an early age are more than three times more likely to develop alcohol dependency later on in life than those who started at the legal age of 21 or later.

According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not

Alcohol! Should the legal drinking age be lowered? The answer to the question is yes it should and here is why.The drinking age limit should be lowered because in the eyes of the law a person is seen as an adult at the age of eighteen, in other countries the lower drinking age works, and in college the drinking among students increased after the limit was raised to twenty one.

Individuals use liquor for various reasons; peer pressure, festivity, nervousness, misery, fatigue, disobedience and a sleeping disorder are only a couple. High schoolers fall under the class of "individuals". The lawful drinking age is as of now twenty-one, yet unlawfully drinking age is as low as zero. Why? Is the fundamental inquiry. I can guarantee you the under age drinking age rate would drop if the age is brought down.

The United States’ minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of twenty one is almost a perfect example of a policy with unrealistic expectations and serious unintended consequences. The current policy that the United States has in effect criminalizes youth who consume alcohol at less than twenty one years of age. Young adults are going to drink under twenty one, so why shouldn’t the United States lower the MLDA to eighteen? Following Prohibition in 1933, many states made their MLDA twenty one. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, many states lowered it to eighteen to match the drafting age (Alcohol Policy MD). President Reagan passed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public

In a New York Times article, Laurence Steinberg states, “I favor lowering the drinking age to 19, which would help solve the problem of illegal drinking on campus...while still making it illegal for high school students to drink, thereby limiting the flow of legally (and easily) purchased alcohol into younger adolescents’ social networks” (Steinberg). This may put more stress on college campuses, but it takes away the revolting ideas of the youth, and takes nearly all high school issues out of the equation. In a CNN report, by William Cohan, he tells, “A drinking age of 19 would also mean that easily three-quarters of the students on a college campus would no longer be violating the law by either drinking on campus or in unsupervised homes off-campus”

Should the legal drinking age be lowered to age 18? Recently people have been debating whether If the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Some people think 18 is a better age but others think it’s outrageous to lower the drinking age to 18. After much reading and observing, I myself think the drinking age should be kept at 21 years old,because young adults who drink while they 're underage make poor decisions and majority of the young adults are in college lacking in classes.

People believe that alcohol is essential to have a great party. People use alcohol for many reasons; peer pressure, anxiety, and to curb insomnia are some of the few reasons. Alcohol affects the parts of the brain that controls movement, speech, judgement, and memory. This is why some people cannot remember the night before when they went out drinking. It is a common fact that most teenagers have had a drink of alcohol before their twenty-first birthday. Most teenagers drink regularly or in some cases, binge drink. Nobody can prevent underage drinking. When people tell a teenagers they cannot have something, it inclines them to want it even more and teenagers will go to extreme lengths to obtain it. In 1984, Congress passed the law stating the legal drinking age in the United States was twenty-one (Alcoholism). As of today, four states in the US are debating whether or not to lower the drinking age back to eighteen, New Hampshire, Minnesota, California, and New Jersey (Thrillist). The drinking age should be lower to eighteen years old because at this age, people can sign up for the military, it can aid colleges to promote safe drinking, and could aid in lowering drinking and driving car wrecks.

John and his friends were sitting in his dorm room when he got a text from another one of his college buddies about a party. You would think that it’s another college party that could get out of hand fast, but he decides to go. People will party, and drink, whether it’s legal or not, so wouldn’t we want to make them as safe as possible for them? Since 1984 the legal drinking age has been 21, but that hasn’t stopped many of the younger adults, ages 18-20, from partying with their friends, and consuming alcoholic beverages. It has lasted over the years as a popular way to rebel against parents, or other authority. Alcohol has a sort of “forbidden fruit” quality for young adults and teens because it is made out to be such a big deal by the government. Lowering it will get rid of this quality. The drinking age is set too high and I believe it needs to be lowered by changing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law (MLDA) from 21 years of age to 18 years of age.

Alcohol! Should the legal drinking age be lowered? The answer to the question is yes, it should. The drinking age limit should be lowered because, in the eyes of the law, a person is seen as an adult at the age of eighteen, in other countries the lower drinking age is successful, and in college, the consumption among students increased after the limit was raised to twenty-one.