The National Minimum Drinking Age Essay

As many teenagers enter college, they begin to experiment with many things. Although not all students participate in underage drinking, it is evident that a vast majority do. Drinking is not the problem. The main problem occurs when students resort to binge drinking. In the

Once a person turns eighteen, he or she receives many rights and privileges. One major right that all of these teenagers are missing is the right to buy and consume alcohol. The question is posed is whether lowering the minimum drinking age to eighteen would be a better or worse idea. Jeffery A. Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University’s economics department, and Elina Tetelbaum, a law student from Yale University, write in their argumentative article in Forbes Magazine, “The Dangers of the Drinking Age”, in which they believe that the minimum drinking age of twenty-one is not working. After conducting studies, they found that the minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one has little or no effect on traffic fatalities. Lowering the minimum drinking age to eighteen would likely have the same effects as the minimum age of twenty-one; it is reasonable to assume that underage teenagers may feel less rebellious knowing that they can legally buy and consume alcohol at the age of eighteen.

My chose to do the policy where we should lower the drinking age from twenty one to eighteen. There are many arguments where you could lower the drinking age. Some say that lowering the drinking age would stop underage drinking and control binge drinking. I think it would stop those things to like lowering the drinking age would cut out a lot of underage drinking because most kids don’t start liking alcohol until there about eighteen anyways.

There always has been controversy as to should the united states lower the drinking age to 18. Eighteen year olds should have the right to drink. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen it will give people supervision, teach responsibilities, and eighteen years olds are already considered adults; however, it may cause binge drinking, it will lead to more deaths, and drinking damages brains cells and especially the body itself.

Every year, thousands of deaths occur as a result of drunk driving, and every day people are facing the consequences of irresponsible drinking. Because of the issues caused by irresponsible drinking, the US government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984 which raised the minimum drinking age to twenty-one to prevent drinking-related accidents and violence. Despite the intent of its passing, it was a counterproductive decision. Because of the higher age restriction, high school upperclassmen and college underclassmen see drinking as an exciting, rebellious act. Consequentially, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act resulted in an increase in dangerous and irresponsible drinking which continues to this day. Not only does the

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

For the past 30 years, the United States has maintained a National Minimum Drinking Age Act, with long term public debate about the violation of civil liberties of this policy, especially in youth rights. As a matter of fact, at eighteen years old, young people can take on many adult responsibilities, but they do not have the right to consume alcohol. Indeed, they have the rights to vote, smoke cigarettes, serve on juries, get married, sue others, be sued, be imprisoned, sign contracts, be prosecuted as adults, and join the military which includes risking one's life. Even though they now considered legal adults with all of these privileges, they are denied the right to purchase and drink alcohol. Prohibiting persons under the age of 21 to enjoy

Drinking alcohol otherwise known as ethanol is a legal drug manufactured in different percentages and various drinking beverages. Ethanol is a naturally occurring colorless liquid produced by fermentation which is an anaerobic chemical process which yeast decomposes sugars and is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide without the presence of oxygen. Normal alcohol percentages range from about 2% up to 60% and while some other beverages can range higher. In the U.S. there has been recent studies to deny the proposal to lower the alcohol consumption laws from 21 to 18. The drinking laws in the United States include The National Minimum Drinking Age Law which was passed on July 17, 1984 by the United States Congress to structure and control the consumption of alcohol. The National Minimum Drinking Age Law prohibits any age limit under 21 to

In 1984 the United States Government approved the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that required that “the States prohibit persons under 21 years of age from purchasing or publicly possessing alcoholic beverages as a condition of receiving State highway funds.” Even though this bill was nowhere near the magnitude of the prohibition act that was passed less than a century before it, the act still damaged the relationship between individuals, firms, and the United States government. Although the intentions of the government were to control alcohol consumption among citizens aged 18-21, the passing of this act affected the equilibrium already established by a consumer-producer market, created a market failure and a black market, and introduced excise taxes into the market.

A college freshman walked into his new living quarters on the third floor of the on-campus dormitory to witness his first wild back-to-school college party. Students strolled through each other’s open doorways with red plastic cups in hand. Music blared, a drink was spilled, laughter echoed off the walls, and the young man was offered an alcoholic drink. The young man was encouraged by his new peers to drink, and so he did. But the college freshman was not yet 21 and therefore agreed to many risks by taking that first sip. In my opinion, the drinking age in America should not be lowered. There are too many risks involved in underage intoxication to pass a law promoting drinking at a younger age.

This discussion has been going on for long on many forums without a decisive conclusion or agreement. This is mainly because both the arguments for lowering the age to 18 years and not lowering have some substantial facts to support them. The people who are against lowering the drinking age come up with a number of arguments which are explained below.

A very controversial argument amongst Americans is determining that the current legal drinking age which is 21 should be lowered to eighteen or not. Researching the following propaganda made me understand the dangers to the youth and people in America if the drinking age were to lower. Therefore i will argue with whoever disagrees with me that the drinking age should be lowered.

Therefore, society and law enforcement have tried to prevent underage alcohol consumption by implementing Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) to children in elementary schools; informing parents of signs of early drug abuse and allowing police departments to search schools to prevent drugs sells or

The controversy on the proper drinking age is one that has been repeatedly discussed and researched over the years. Its common to hear the argument “If someone is old enough to take a bullet for their country, they should be allowed to drink alcohol.” But is that enough justification? Some would say no. “According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) it is estimated that in 2004 there were more than 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 696,000 assaults annually associated with excessive drinking” (Fennell 247). Given these numbers, would lowering the drinking age really be the best thing for America’s youth?

Sarah, an eighteen-year-old college freshman, walks into a convenience store and moves timidly to the back, hoping that no one she knows will see her. Opening the refrigerator door, she pulls out a chilled case of Coors Light. Sarah nervously approaches the cashier, with her fake ID ready to be shown, and places the case of beer on the counter. Upon first sight, the cashier assumes that Sarah is not of legal age to buy beer, because she is petite and looks young. When she places the case on the counter, the cashier asks her for her ID. Sarah, ready to show her seemingly flawless fake form of identification, hands it to him. At first glance, the ID seems to be real, and the date of birth