The Legal Drinking Age Of America

     Did you know that in the year 1980 the legal drinking age was only 18? In 1987 there was a law passed that said in order to drink legally and to buy alcohol a person had to be 21. At the age of 18 people are allowed to buy tobacco, vote, get married without parental consent, and even join the armed forces, so why can’t some one who is 18 by alcohol. This is a question I have; I believe that the legal drinking age should be 18. Dr. Ruth Engs, a professor of Applied Heath Sciences at Indiana University, agrees with me also. She states, “the legal drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19 and young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments.” (Engs) These controlled places include

The legal drinking age in the United States is 21, while in other countries the legal age ranges from 16-18. The argument in the United States is “Should the United States lower its drinking age?” There are many sides to this argument but research has given many good points to back up both sides of the question. First thing is the difference between a teen’s brain with alcohol and an adult’s brain with alcohol. Another thing is drinking at a younger age can help teach culture. Lastly the more alcohol exposed the increase in death rate. I believe that it is a good idea to keep the legal drinking age at age 21 because in our past we have had many problems with death increases due to the drinking age being at different ages and the research used uses pathos, logos, ethos and Kairos to help persuade the reader support that 21 should stay the legal drinking age.

There has always been a big controversy on the legal drinking age and what it should be. The consumption of alcohol can be seen has dangerous or has a medicine. The legal drinking age should be raised due to violent crime, domestic abuse, and DUI all related to abusing alcohol. Raising the legal drinking age will decrease the amount of violent crime, domestic abuse, and DUI related deaths.

What do you think the legal drinking age should be? For years the question, “What should be the legal drinking age,” has been in the air. Many people have been arguing whether or not the legal age to drink should be raised, stay the same, or lowered. Save Us from Youth talks about how there is not a consistency of laws for an eighteen-year-old. As a young adult you are given many rights to be certified as an adult, yet are held back as youth because drinking is prohibited. Different appeals to logic and red herring are used in Save Us from Youth, to give the authors view on consistency of laws and being an adult.

Remember being sixteen and the only thing we could possibly do with the rest of our lives was wait to turn eighteen? On our eighteenth birthday we found a renewed sense of the word maturity as we were now able to walk into gas stations or grocery stores to buy lottery tickets or a pack of cigarettes. At this point in our lives we were able to attain a full driver 's license, no more permit or be in by 9 rules! But, there is still that "Under 21" label above or right next to your name, even though you gain a lot of responsibilities and rights at 18, your driver 's license is an indication and reminder to how “youthful” you still are. By age eighteen we are able to enlist (Enlisting) and die for our country. Everyone knows how heroic that is, however, “at eighteen years old you have nearly every burden and privilege as adults...except the right to drink alcohol” (Lynn)

An article written by Sophie Defaix, a staff member of Millersville University, writes an article in The Snapper the University's paper called “The drinking age in America: what’s there to fuss about.” Defaix argues that the drinking age in the United States should be lowered to eighteen, and if so the amount of underage binge drinking incidents would decrease. Defaix writes this paper with the intended audience most likely being staff and students of the university or even parents of students that attend the university. Defaix uses examples and draws on her past to relate to her readers and give them other perspectives, but she has nothing that backs her strengths her argument limiting its effect.

The minimum drinking age in the U.S. have questioned and in continuous debate to keep 21 years as minimum dinking age or lowering to 18 years. There are many opinions and arguments for those who approve a change and those who defend the policy. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 stablish 21 years as the minimum age to consume, purchasing or publicly possessing of alcoholic beverages. People that support this law affirm that are more the benefits on keep or even raising 21 years old as minimum age to drink since the car accident have been decreasing since the approve of this act. In the other hand, people who are against this law, argue that keeping or even raising the minimum legal age to consume alcoholic beverages have not change

Drinking is something done universally. It can be done socially or obsessively. Even though the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA ) in the U.S. is 21 and it has been that way since 1984 young adults still continue to drink. They know it is illegal and they know that they could get arrested, the thing is they also know that in other countries the MLDA is lower, it could be anywhere from 19 to 16. This can be hard for young people to wrap their heads around. The fact that they can vote and go fight in wars yet it is illegal for them to get a beer with friends. All of these things aside it is still unhealthy and potentially unsafe.

There have been many recent debates on the subject of the legal age to drink alcoholic beverages in the United States of America. Some otherwise intelligent people want to lower the legal drinking age to eighteen rather than keep it at twenty-one, the current federally mandated drinking age. In Time Magazine Mary Cary, author of Time to Lower the Drinking Age, puts forth the position that lowering the drinking age would actually be beneficial to society. Though lowering the drinking age to eighteen may lead to solutions to underage drinking, many other, more dangerous issues may arise from teenagers who begin to drink earlier in life; this is the greater matter that and it should not be overlooked on this issue.

In recent years, debate about what the legal drinking age should be in the United States has been ubiquitous. People of all ages advocate both for and against lowering the age, and some people do not even have an opinion. What has led people to their specific convictions, and what facts do they possess that support these convictions? In the following paragraphs, this popular controversy will be addressed as each position is thoroughly analyzed.

The drinking age in the United States has always been a topic of much debate. With the legal drinking age in the United States at 21 years old, it is the highest in the world. A major reason as to why the drinking age was changed in 1984 is because of the rise of drunken driving accidents. The older generation attributed the rise in the rate of alcohol related accidents to the younger generation being reckless when they drank. The government raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 in hopes of lowering this rate, and hopefully saving lives.

At the age of 18, any individual who is a legal citizen of the United States of America has the option to vote, marry the love of their life, enter law abiding contracts with banks, see R rated movies without the presence of an adult, serve in any branch of the military, and buy tobacco products. These are important choices given to those entering adulthood, but one choice not given to those who are legally considered adults is drinking. 30 years ago this July, the National Drinking Age Act was passed. This act required that those who are in the United States must wait till the age of 21 to consume alcohol legally. According to Camile Pagila, this is “absurd”, “unjust”, and “a violation of civil liberties.” Although those words could be used to describe forcing adults to wait till they are 21 to drink, in “Keeping Legal Drinking Age at 21 Saves 900 Lives Yearly: Study,” Bahar Gholipour shows that these laws that keep the drinking age at 21, save lives and protect young adults from the dangers that come from drinking.

The current United States legal drinking age is twenty one. While many United States citizens agree with this age, others don’t. Those who do not agree feel like the age to legally be able to purchase, consume or possess alcohol should be eighteen. A United States citizen is allowed to vote, join the armed forces, obtain their license, and get married at the age of eighteen. Why is it that they cannot drink alcohol beverages? If at eighteen, an individual can have so many responsibilities, why is the legal drinking age twenty one? Does the U.S government not trust those under twenty one? If they trust us with their votes and to die for their country, they should trust us to drink responsibly.

The legal drinking age has always been a debatable topic that people argue about all the time. Alcohol has been a drug problem for the majority of our young adults all around the world. The goal is to decrease the effects of underage drinking In the United States by keeping the legal drinking law 21. Every state had the right to their own legal drinking age, therefore during the 1970 & 1980’s some states had 21 while others had 18. This problem was carried over when teenagers got behind the wheel while intoxicated. Several studies have shown that "blood borders" between states with different MLDAs caught public attention after highly-publicized crashes in which youth below the legal drinking age would drive to an adjoining state with a lower MLDA, drink legally, and crash on their way home (Hedlund, J., Ulmer, R., & Preusser, D. 2001). In comparing the states with a lower MLDA to the ones with a higher MLDA it was proven that the car crashes, fatalities and the alcohol consumption amongst young teens intoxicated outweighed the states with a legal drinking age of twenty one. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Act law was passed and all states were encouraged to increase the legal drinking age to twenty one and the states that refused would lose a portion of their federal-aid highway construction funding (Hedlund, J., Ulmer, R., & Preusser, D. 2001). Overtime it has been proven that the young adult alcohol related fatalities has decreased by 63% in 1982 which

The legal drinking age should not be lowered in the United States for the safety of all humans.