Controversial Argumentative Essay Many people would agree with the claim that the passing of the National Minimum Drinking Age act was the responsible and moral decision to make. Since then, it has lowered drunk driving fatalities by 51% and the total of all traffic accidents by 20%. It has even managed to help make intoxication calls for hospitals less common. However, despite these great improvements for the fight towards traffic accidents and irresponsible drinking habits, it has ironically caused more harm than good towards our society in terms of the benefit of our economy, our constitutional rights as Americans, and the safety of young adults. It would be understandable to view the lowering of the current legal drinking age as irresponsible but it would also be unwise to try to fix one problem only to create more. The legal minimum age for the consumption of alcohol in the U.S. is a huge mistake and it needs to be fixed by lowering it for the progression of our legal …show more content…
However, if representatives were to look closely then it would realize that lowering the drinking age would be an extremely huge contribution towards their effort of getting rid of financial problems. According to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, underage drinking accounts for about 17.5 percent of consumer spending in the U.S. That would be about 22.5 billion dollars per year. It would make sense to view that already as a huge amount of money for our economy but if more people were to be allowed to purchase alcohol then it would only boost the revenue even more. Keep in mind that places such as bars, restaurants, and other establishments would also be able to make more profit from the increase in alcohol consumption which would most certainly boost the tax revenue as
If the legal drinking age was eighteen people wouldn’t feel a thrill of breaking the law to get a drink. “Lowering the legal drinking age would reduce the number of underage people who are hurt from alcohol related injuries or accidents due to fear of legal consequences if they sought medical attention.” (Tracey
Robert Voas states teen pregnancy, sexual assaults, and crime rates have increased due to underage drinking. Alcohol consumption at a college age leads to 600,000 physical assaults and 70,000 sexual assaults yearly according to a study (464). Joyce Alcantara claims if the age were lowered back to eighteen then it would put younger teens at risk (468). People tend to have friends around their same age. So, if eighteen year olds were allowed to drink then their friends which are roughly around the age of sixteen or seventeen would likely have an alcoholic drink in their hand as well.
“If the legal age were lowered in the US it would have to come with much more education in this area, not just the shock-value of Every 15 Minutes” said Ulrike Skillman, math teacher at Saugus. Skillman suggests the lowering of the drinking age will have to come with more alcohol education and that is the exact purpose of a “drinking license.” Which would allow 18 year olds to consume alcohol, with strict regulations, then take classes to officially receive a “drinking license” at 21 years old. The license would replicate a driver’s license, but be geared toward consuming alcohol.
The author addressed a thirteen year old girl named Cari Lightner was walking to a carnival when she was struck and hit by a hit-and-run drunk driver and killed instantly. The author also talks about binge drinking and how if the legal drinking age is lowered, Americans would stop binge drinking;therefore, the conclusion is incorrect. She states that alcohol should be forbidden until 18-to 20 year olds precisely because they have a tendency to binge drink whether it is legal or illegal,and how college students get into a great deal of trouble due to binge drinking. Students endanger themselves and others. They sometimes even kill students.
Illinois should lower the drinking age to 18 is probably something you hear every college aged kid that gets caught with alcohol and get stuck expensive drinking ticket. Parents will say that their kids should never drink at all, or at least uptight ones will but most parents could agree with the police that issue the tickets as a punishment. Police will state that state with strict rules of the law that no one should even be in possession of alcohol because that means that purchased illegally or had a person that could legally buy it for them which is always a problem with the restriction of a substance. This interconnected actors and situations lay that IAD framework that this paper will be analyzed; both sides of the issue will be brought up and examined with an introduction of who the actors on each side of the issue are, identify their preferences, discuss the rules-in-use (both formal and informal, laws and norms), discuss the incentives those rules are
(Glaser par. 6). I believe that educating people on alcohol is one of the most fundamentally solid ways of being more safe around alcohol, lowering the age will give more people this opportunity. While some may not have a responsible guardian to turn to the many that do will result positively in the number of fatalities due to
Over the years, there have been debates about lowering the drinking age in the United States to eighteen. People argue that if a person can fight in the military or vote in elections, then he or she should be allowed the right to drink alcohol. Others feel that it is not wise to lower the legal drinking age because the results would be dangerous. Although there are arguments for lowering the drinking age, there is also an abundance of research that proves lowering the drinking age would be destructive. The legal drinking age should not be lowered to eighteen because it will give high school and even middle school students greater access to alcohol, interfere with brain development, adult rights begin at twenty-one, and increase traffic accidents among the youth.
People have said that if the drinking age was lowered it was lower the risk of everything else that is happening with alcohol problems. For example, more than one hundred and thirty people have signed a petition initiated in the 2008 in support of the idea. Since the mid 1930’s, the legal drinking age in the United States has been set at twenty-one. At some point there was no uniform drinking age, with some states choosing eighteen, nineteen and even twenty as the legal age for drinking. Back then, it was safe to drink because everyone knew everyone.
It has instead pushed underage binge drinking into private and less controlled environments, leading to more health and life-endangering behaviors by teens. If the legal drinking age was lowered, those teens would be able to drink in a more controlled and much more safe environment where they can be monitored and supervised. Then they will be less likely to harm themselves or others. The second argument that is used is that there are fewer drunk driving accidents in countries with lower drinking ages. In quite a few countries around the world, the legal drinking age is already 18.
The drinking age should be lowered, because brains are not fully developed yet, colleges should be able to regulate drinking, and this can solve problems with kids underage drinking. Despite the controversy, the drinking age should decrease for many logical reasons. The drinking age has been a debate between the ages 18 to the age of 21 for a while now. Over the years, studies have showed favors toward the age of 21.
Over the years, the legal drinking age in the United States has been heavily debated. Some argue that the legal age to drink should be 18 or 19 because people at that age are recognized as adults; others argue that the drinking age should be 21 because people who are able to drink should be more mature and have their lives better planned out. Although people are legally adults at 18, they are not yet mature adults; in fact, according to NRP, “emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don’t reach full maturity until the age 25” (“Brain”). Before earning the right to legally drink, people should allow their bodies to fully develop and gain a better knowledge of how to organize their lives. The drinking age should remain
Alcohol Age Limit Would you rather the drinking age limit be lower, higher, or does it even matter? The legal drinking age limit should stay at 21, it is a pretty mature age to handle alcohol and the age limit is always changing. Under aged kids always find a way to obtain alcohol, and often times parents do not care and they’ll buy their kids alcoholic drinks. Does this law really change anything?
“ [The drinking age] is unfavorable because it forces youth to consume alcohol in unsupervised places that are risky and consumption may be abused.” The idea is, if the drinking age is lowered, youth will be able to drink in open, public places that can be supervised by others. By being public, it would decrease the risky behavior seen with alcohol in private, unsupervised settings. Pomata also asserts, “The age restriction inspires undesirable activities just as the National Prohibition Act did.” Some undesirable activities that are associated with underage drinking include the making and distributing of fake ID’s.
A poll taken on July 2014 asked the public opinion of US adults for lowering the US legal drinking age from 21 to 18. Approximately 74% of the people opposed the idea, whereas roughly 25% of the people supported the idea ("Public Opinion" 1). The statistics indicate satisfaction among the majority of the people; however, with the current laws many issues arise that must be addressed concerning alcohol use. For starters, studies show an increase of dangerous drinking habits among young adults (Hall 2). In addition, the enforcement of the drinking laws and education on alcohol is insubstantial (Moyse, Fonder 3).
Though people believe it would be good to lower the drinking age, we should look at the death or injury rates where alcohol is the cause, compared to the rates of accidents from people who hadn’t been intoxicated. There has been much data collected over the years showing just how much healthier and safer not only the US is, but many other countries have become since raising the legal drinking age to twenty-one. If nothing else, look at the one third of every twenty-five, thousand people that die every year due to alcohol related crashes where the victim wasn’t even intoxicated. Not only does alcohol have life changing effects on the people drinking it, but also everyone around