The Minimum Legal Drinking Age

Due to a significant amount of young people having alcohol related motor vehicle crashes the United States Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Act in 1984. Originally, after prohibition the minimum legal drinking age was 21 in nearly all states. However, as the voting age was decreased in the 1970’s many of the states lowered the legal drinking age (2013). Many wanted the Federal government to step in and

As many people know or have heard of someone who has been a victim of drunk driving it happens quite often. Students and young adults will go out to bars with friends and will try to drive home after consuming way too many drinks. Only because of the risk of the parents finding out and being caught. In the long run, it makes the situation a lot worse.

Furthermore, 21 year olds create less traffic accidents and fatalities than 18 year olds. For example, 21 years olds are more mature and responsible for their own actions than 18 years olds. As a fact, “Excessive alcohol consumption contributes to more than 4,700 deaths among underage youth, that is, persons less than 21 years of age, in the United States each year.” (CDC). Throughout each year, 21 year old drivers tend to be safer on the road than 18 year olds. To prove this, 18 year olds get carried away with drinking while driving and force them to cause trouble with others.

In the 1980s, the United States raised the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) to 21, from 18, in an attempt to protect the nation 's youth. This placed the USA among the few countries whose drinking age is above 18. These countries include most of Canada, the Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Egypt, Indonesia, Micronesia, and Palau (Jernigan). Around the world, drinking ages vary; for example, in Slovenia, Italy, Portugal, Malta and Greece, you can drink before you turn 18, and in parts of India, you cannot legally obtain alcohol until age 25 (Jernigan; Mukherjee). This leads to an important question on whether our democracy should lower the MLDA. The facts on underage drinking, international data on lower drinking ages, current enforcement of underage drinking laws, as well as proposed implications of programs coupled with a lower drinking age provides provoking data pointing towards the ethical lowering of the drinking age. The democracy of the United States of America should lower the MLDA, but also adopt a mandatory alcohol education class, and a graduated licensing system.

Over the past twenty years the minimum legal drinking age has been twenty-one in all US states, but that has not stopped citizens of the United Sates from attempting to lower the age. Following the end of prohibition in the United Sates during the Great Depression, all states agreed on a set of twenty-one to be the legal drinking age. For almost forty years there was no change in the drinking age until a decrease in the age for voting occurred. This led to the gradual decrease of the minimum legal drinking age to somewhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty among twenty-one states. Recent data collected by Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson, both of which obtain either a

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.

Ever since the end of prohibition in 1933 the United States government has placed the issue of minimum legal drinking age sensitively in the hands of the states, letting each decide for itself what the minimum age should be. At that time all agreed that the minimum legal drinking age should be 21, where it remained for all states until 1970.Between 1970, and 1975 a number of states played around with the idea of lowering that age to 20, 19, and

Studies show that keeping the drinking age at twenty-one improves lives. When the United States raised the age limit to twenty-one in 1985, a shortage of drinking occurred at a whopping 40% by 1991. As a result, fewer students drop out of high school, less motor accidents occur, and suicides rates dropped significantly. However, lowering the drinking age to eighteen will bring serious consequences on young adults by reversing these statistics. Lowering the drinking age will cause significant health problems, draw youth to poor judgment situations, before they are even old enough to handle the responsibility of drinking.

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

My experiences in high school and college have taught me that restricting young people from drinking does not stop them from consuming alcohol. However, is this a good reason to lower the drinking age? People’s actions should conform to the law, as the purpose of laws is to maintain order in society. If the community could eliminate or alter laws simply by consistently breaking them, then legislation would become obsolete. Although the “21 law” does not completely prevent underage drinking, it has helped to reduce the number of incidents of underage drinking. Research studies conducted between 1960 and 1999 have been reviewed by University of Minnesota epidemiologists Alexander Wagenaar and Traci Toomey. Their conclusion is that the law has “reduced both youth alcohol use and alcohol-related traffic crashes” (DeJong 3). Furthermore, in 1999, New Zealand lowered its legal drinking age from 20 to 18. The result was a “big increase in traffic crashes and injuries among 15- to 19-year-olds” (DeJong 3).

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.

Simultaneously, accidents involving automobiles without a doubt are devastating. How would one feel if a loved one was killed in a collision due to an intoxicated driver? Wouldn’t the individual want to do something about it? The death of the Candy Lightner’s daughter lead to her development of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This act gave full federal highway funds only to states that set the minimum age to purchase or consume alcohol at twenty-one years (Sanghavi). Once all states raised their MLDA to twenty-one years, drunk-driving accidents and deaths decreased. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the reduction in traffic fatalities due to the legal drinking age of twenty-one prevented 846 deaths in 1997 and prevented a total of 17,359 deaths since 1975 (Balkin 168). This single statistic shows that automobile accidents have substantially decreased in response to the authorization of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. In addition, the average teenager earns their drivers license at the age of seventeen. This being said, allowing a young driver with only one years experience (excluding a learners permit) to legally consume alcohol would surely be an irresponsible decision. Most people know

Alcohol’s reputation varies from one culture to another. By some cultures, it is perceived as a “forbidden fruit” while others view it as an essential complement to their diet. Its complicated nature has caused modern countries to attempt to alleviate its harmful effects by setting restrictive laws. However, with the creation of these laws also arose imminent opposition and doubt over their effectiveness. While today’s minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) is 21, it has been proven that the ideal minimum drinking age is 18, because it is safer for the health and it demotes crime.

If we would lower the legal drinking age the amount of car crashes would increase. A 1975 study showed that when 2 U.S states and a province in Canada lowered the legal-drinking age it increased fatal car accidents. Since the 1970’s young drinking in the U.S has declined, most of the decline happened in the 90’s. And decreases the amount of drunk drivers. Researchers say

For many adults, alcohol is considered a luxury, but it might be better for young adults and teens to hold off on this forbidden fruit until they of proper age. The minimum drinking age has been a topic of controversy in Ontario for a while, changing from 21, to 18, and now 19. While the consumption of alcohol in regulated small amounts is okay, many younger adults and teens lack the necessary self control, and indulge in binge drinking. This type of behaviour can often have a negative effect on their bodies. There are also major concerns regarding road safety, as car accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver are more frequent in those of younger age in comparison to their older counterparts. The current minimum legal drinking age is too low, as there have been more cases of underage drinking, and abuse of other substances. All of these issues could be avoided if the legal age for consumption of alcohol in Ontario was raised back to the age of 21.