Minimum Legal Drinking Age

The drinking age is at 21 but, some are voting to bring down to 18. The drinking age starts at 21 for a reason and needs to stay where it is. Alcohol is poisonous at any age but, it can be more harmful to a developing brain and a teenager finding a new life. It’s extremely easy to numb the annoyance of life with alcohol and many people have become addicted to the escape. In this country our children are not ready to drink at 18, we have a different system and different children.

Should you be allowed to drink alcoholic beverages at 18 years old? After all 18 is when most adult privileges are received anyway. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 in the United States.

Sasha Williams was celebrating her 18th birthday at the hottest club in town. After all the drinking she did at the club she got behind the wheel of a vehicle and drove into a tree which caused her to have brain damage. This story is an example of what could happen if lawmakers consider lowering the drinking age. The United States should not legalize the law of lowering the drinking age to 18 because it leads to violent and destructive behavior, drinking and driving, and alcohol poisoning. The drinking age being lowered would not be beneficial to anyone 's life.

Advocates and supporters of lowering the MLDA 21 to 18 allows young adults the right to make decisions about the consumption of alcohol. As the age of 18 entails an individual to legally become a young adult, receiving the “[rights] and responsibilities [required] to vote… and purchase cigarettes…” (Chiappetta), being prosecuted and tried as an adult, serve on juries, getting married, and drafting to the military – in which dangers the lives of themselves and others surrounding them. As lowering the MLDA from 21 to 18 will lessen the excitement to break the law for consuming alcohol finding the balance between moderation and consumption will become less taboo for workforce individuals and incoming university students. While allowing the consumption of alcohol in regulated and licensed environments and establishments as opposed to unsupervised house parties or fraternity houses “decreases the likelihood of danger and [controversial] actions” (McCardell).

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. This leads to an important question on whether our democracy should lower the MLDA. Underage drinking facts, international drinking ages, enforcement of underage drinking laws, as well as proposed implications of new laws justify lowering the drinking age. The democracy of the United States of America should lower the MLDA, and adopt a graduated licensing system.

Should the U.S. Legal Drinking Age be lowered from 21 to 18 Years of Age?

The drinking age in the US was changed from 21 to 18 to solve the problems it had caused when it the legal age was 18, however, instead of fixing these problems, the new age has just covered them up and is causing further trouble. “The change of drinking age to 18 in 1971 was quickly changed back to 21 by 1984 to counter-act the epidemic of drunk driving accidents that it had caused” (“Lowering”.). The drinking age in the US should be lowered to 18 because it would increase the safety and health in teens.

Congress and Presidents’ tried to prevent the abuse of alcoholism by passing a law (National Minimum Age Drinking Act) to lower the possibilities of having more accidents, but with the law being created more than a million teens around the world haven’t abided by this law. Imagine that you had a bottle of whiskey that contained seventy-five percent of alcohol and later on you were wasted trying to get to your vehicle so you can drive home, but you got caught driving drunk by a police officer. What could you have done to prevent that from happening? 1) Being responsible and 2) Have a designated driver that would drive you home and 3) Don’t drink at all! Overwhelming the results of seventy-seventy percent of the American public had disagreed with lowering the drinking age from twenty-one years old to a younger age.

There has been a wide debate over whether or not the drinking age should be lowered from the age of twenty one to the age of eighteen, to lower the drinking age, with the hopes that it will prevent binge drinking of college students. Parents and guardians disagree and think lowering the drinking age will just result in a lower age binge drinking in high school students instead. While there are many negative sides to both of this argument, it is important that it be discussed instead of throwing it to the side. There are many solutions that can be made to prevent all of the negative things that could happen if the minimum drinking age was lowered, and if so then we need to start allowing our now considered adults to start to start drinking alcohol legally.

Imagine seeing a loved one being in a drunk driving accident, now imagine them being the drunk driver. All of this could have been avoided if the drinking age was not lowered, but some may disagree. Many people believe that if the drinking age were lowered, these problems would no longer be an issue. But many also believe that the problem would just become worse and maybe even cause greater issues. Lowering the drinking age could also cause problems like violent behavior, and intoxication. Also drinking could cause more problems in schools and workplaces. The drinking age should not be lowered from 21, it would not solve the problems and with anything it would make it worse.

The issue of drinking alcohol has always been one of the most discussed in any society. We now have access to numerous data showing how destructive the influence of alcohol on people can be. Especially important is this to consider in case of young people who still do not completely understand what they do with their lives and where their illegal behavior can lead them. In regards to this, the limitations on selling alcohol in the USA are quite strict and people under 21 should not be allowed to drink. However, there exist some discussions concerning whether to lower this age limitation or not. There are many supporters of both ways of solving this problem, and they all have quite reasonable argumentation for their positions. However, do the

When Ethan Couch was 16 years old, he killed four people in a car accident. He had a blood alcohol content of 0.24. Ethan and his friends did not know they would be the cause of four casualties when they went out drunk that night. Most teens are unaware of their limits until it is too late. It would be to everyone’s advantage if the legal drinking age stayed at twenty-one in hopes to reduce numerous health issues and car

Alcohol abuse and alcoholism seems like an issue that keeps getting increasingly worse each year in the United States. According to USA Today and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both say that approximately 6 people die from alcohol poisoning, caused from binge drinking, each day, which amounts to roughly 2,200 people each year. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that “In 2013 an estimated 697,000 adolescents ages 12–17 (2.8 percent of this age group) had an [alcohol use disorder]” (“Alcohol Facts”). Something has to stop and something has to change from preventing this more because 6 people dying each day from binge drinking alone is a lot, not to mention that 12-17 year olds are having alcohol problems at such a young age. Lowering the drinking age will enforce this act even more, promoting more drinking in fact. It would be a more acceptable thing to do and people would be more open about it. Yes, it might be good that underage people are not drinking in private and are open about their drinking habits, but that still doesn’t mean it is healthy physically or

Being in my thirties and growing up in New York State, I have always known the legal drinking age to be 21 years old. Alcohol has long been a staple in society, with attempts to eliminate this drug futile and unsuccessful. The ratification of the 18th Amendment in the 1920’s

In 19854, Congress set the American drinking age to 21 with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. If the states did not want to raise the drinking age, they would lose 10% of their highway funds. Congress extrapolated, with a higher drinking age, less drunk driving would occur. Although there