The Minimum Drinking Age Act

The law that raised the drinking age happens to be very unstable. To begin with “a portion of the American public today is arguing that if a member of the U.S. military is old enough to die fighting for his or her country, then they ought to be mature enough to enjoy a beer” (“License”). An eighteen year old can die for their country, vote for politicians, and decide what they are doing with their future, but are not allowed to drink alcohol. It stands out that eighteen year olds can also obtain cigarettes that can lead to various types of cancer but cannot enjoy an alcoholic beverage. Continuing on, another reason that raising the drinking age is unjust is that binge drinking continues to occur, which is when one consumes 4 or 5 drinks in a row: “binge drinking is unchanged from its levels of 1979; that among non college women it has increased by 20 percent; and that among college women it has increased by 40 percent” (McCardell). If

Car crashes, sexual assaults, domestic abuse, and alcohol poisoning are just a few of the reasons why people under the age of 21 are devastated by the illegal use of alcohol. Alcohol is the first drug choice by the nation’s youth; which could often lead to consequences. The legal drinking age should stay at twenty-one because it betters brain development and lessens violent assaults.

The minimum legal drinking age was not always twenty-one; it has fluctuated between twenty-one and eighteen over the past few decades. In the article, “Underage Drinking and the Drinking Age” by Carla T.

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.

In the United States, the minimum age required to legally consume alcohol is twenty-one years, being allowed in some states for young people under the minimum drinking age to consume alcohol under specific controlled circumstances. This particular age is controversial as it does not correspond to the age of majority of 18 years embraced by 47 states, which entitles the individual to vote, get married and join the army, among other decisions inherent to adulthood. It is thus seen as contradictory to consider a young person mature enough to take decisions of this nature, but not mature enough to drink alcohol.

Once an adolescent reaches the age of 18, they have the ability to join or be drafted into the military, vote, buy tobacco, get married, serve on a jury, sign contracts and be prosecuted as adults. They have all of these rights, so why is it that the only thing an 18 year old can’t do is drink alcohol? Once you hit the age of 18, you are an adult, and should be treated as an adult, so therefore you should be trusted enough that you can make your own decisions on how much alcohol should be consumed (Drinking Age).

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.

Some say teens naturally overdo it and that’s why the age limit is where it’s at. Let me tell you the real reason the drinking age is 21 and why an age limit isn’t the solution to teenage drunk driving.

The minimum drinking age has been debated ever since the early 1970’s when there was no national drinking age. Depending on the state, the minimum drinking age was between the range of 18 to 21-year-olds. However, Exhibit B illustrates how the debate was quieted in 1984 during the Regan Presidency with the passing of a law that required states to prohibit people under the age of 21 to consume alcohol as a condition of receiving a portion of federal state highway funding.

The legal drinking age is the age at which a person can consume or purchase alcohol. These laws cover a wide range of issues and behaviors, addressing when and where alcohol can be consumed. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed by Congress 30 years ago. This law told states that they had to enforce the drinking age of 21 or lose up to ten percent of their federal highway funding. The idea that a person was fully an adult at age 21 relates to an English common law. 21 was the age where a person could vote and become a knight. If a person was 21, they could drink then, too. Franklin Roosevelt approved lowering the minimum age for the military draft from 21 to 18 during World War II. Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) began pushing for the national drinking age to be set at 21. They thought it would keep alcohol out of the hands of 18-year-olds who they felt were less mature. As a result, President Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 to set the age at 21. Legislation concerning the legal minimum drinking age in the United States can be

On July 17 the United States Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. Signed by President Ronald Regan, which requires that states prohibit people under the age of 21 from purchasing or publicly process alcoholic beverages as a condition of receiving State highway funds. Initially intended as a comprehensive approach to reduce the number of alcohol related deaths on the nations highways. Not prohibiting a person under 21 from drinking under certain exceptions some such as religious purposes, when accompanied by a parent, spouse or legal guardian age 21 or older and medical purposes to name a few. Increasing the minimum legal drinking age has caused more chaos and harm than good due to the amount of restrictions relating to the initial purpose.

In the United Sates, statistics show that the consumption of alcohol by minors has decreased in the last twenty years, but the consumption of alcohol by adults ages twenty-one through twenty-four have increased (Wechsler and Nelson 987). Waiting until you are twenty-one to legally drink is causing adults to binge drink without thinking of the consequences.

Towards the end of the 1970 the President and the government were concerned about the legal drinking age. When the President, Ronald Reagan noticed the ridiculous amount of public health and safety issues he passed an act. For instance in 1982, President Ronald Reagan confronted a Presidential Commission officer on Drunk Driving because of the research that he found on younger drinking ages that had increased alcohol-related highway deaths. It was about thirty years ago when President Reagan passed a law in 1984, called the minimum drinking age act. The minimum drinking age act required America’s states to raise the age to 21 for purchasing and having public possession of alcohol by October 1986. For each state that don’t follow this law

Minimum limited drinking age law in America was passed more than 30 years ago. Therefore, it needed to be altered to catch up with today’s world. Teenagers today are no longer the kind of teenager back in the 1980s. Now, they have access to information on the Internet, they were taught how alcoholic drinks affect to the body, they were supervised by their parents closely. Moreover, teenagers even have legal access to voting, driving, owning a car,...and they can be jailed up if they break the law, sentenced in prison if the crime was serious enough. Therefore, teenager should be able to control of their life and have access to alcohol as a right they supposed to have long time ago.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), underage drinking is a leading public health problem in this country (NIH, 2016). The NIAAA also estimates that approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking (NIH. 2016). This includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide (NIH. 2016). The National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA) was passed by Congress and signed by President Regan in 1984 (Miller, 2016). This law established a national drinking age of 21. Twenty-nine states made the decision to lower the legal drinking age but quickly changed it back to 21 after there was a rise among teenage and young adult highway deaths. Before NMDAA, states were responsible for establishing their own drinking ages that varied from the age of 18-21 (Miller, 2016).