In the 1920s alcohol was prohibited in all America. The Americans were not “legally” able to buy or sell alcoholic drink. The Americans still bought their liquor from bootleggers and gangsters. The prohibition ended in 1933 for all Americans and were able to legally buy alcohol. Then the prohibition started again in 1984 for Americans ages from 20 and under because of a new law created by law makers. The national minimum drinking age law act states that anyone under 21 cannot purchase and publicly hold alcohol drinks. Now in 2015, the national minimum drinking act stills holds up. In America 18-years-olds are fighting or disagreeing with this law. Many young adults 18-20 belief the alcohol drinking law should be lower to the age 18. The national minimum law should be lowered because …show more content…
In truth, people only half accurate about alcohol causing accident where people are killed. Drunk driving is what’s killing people and older adults drink and drive. It’s as if the blame of drunk driving is only on young adults. Matt Nagin writes, “…According to M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), in 2010 the highest drunk driving rates were found amongst those ages 21 to 25 (23.4%)…” (n.pag). Older adults are drinking and driving and being irresponsible. Proving that age has nothing to do with drinking and that it should be lower to age eighteen because people regardless of age will be mature and responsible and some that are not. Instead, the government should make a law requiring all car companies to install an alcohol breath detector. If the breath detector smell alcohol that person whether young adult or not can’t drive the car. College students want the drinking age to be lower to age 18 or at least 19. Many college students ages 18-20 feel left out. Many students feel that their legally able to do anything and yet can’t drink and join their
Most students join fraternities as it is a group which has like minded people or a group of people who take care of each other like a family member and are always together with each other like a team. The fraternities are famous for its parties where the parties have a lot of alcohol in it where identification cards with the age 21 are not required. There are even tasks that members have to do like having shots, drinking a lot of alcohol where there is peer pressure too. Even school kids drink alcohol which is really common in the United States. Moreover underage drinkers have older friends who get alcohol for them so the law where the legal age is 21 is barely followed.
According to M.A.D.D.(Mothers Against Drunk Driving), in 2010 the highest drunk driving rates were found amongst those ages 21 to 25 , and 18 to 20. After age 25, the drunk driving rates decrease. Some people think that part of the problem with alcohol abuse by young people say, is that the legal drinking age in the United States is too high. "When we raise the drinking age to 21, which incidentally is the highest in the world, it makes drinking more attractive to young people," says David J. Hanson, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam. Critics of the drinking age limit also point to the fact that at 18, U.S. citizens can vote, marry and own a gun, but cannot legally gulp a beer.
“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.
Traffic crash rates have been inversely related with the minimum legal drinking age since the 1970’s. Studies conducted since the 1980’s analyzed how the change in the MLDA affected the outcome of total traffic crashes for youth, drinking-driving convictions, single-vehicle nighttime crash fatalities, and alcohol problems among youth. The MLDA needs to be at 21, because 67% of the studies completed have concluded that there was a significant decrease in traffic crashes and crash fatalities when the drinking age was higher. In addition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that in 1987 alone, 1,071 traffic crashes were prevented because of the MLDA of 21 (NHTSA 1989). Lower rates of death caused by vehicle crashes were found in states with higher MLDA’s throughout these various studies, and a 16% decrease in vandalism rates were observed in 4 states that raised their MLDA.
Lawmakers are risking other lives if they lower the drinking age. “An average of 17,000 individuals die each year in drinking related deaths” (Nagin). Alcohol does a lot to how the body functions. In a way it affects how your brain functions. Alcohol has different effects depending on your age.
Before the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed it was legal for people of the age of eighteen to purchase and consume alcohol. The United States has the highest legal drinking age, 21, in the world. In most countries in Europe it is
The drinking age used to be 18. Many people wish that it would go back to that. Mary Kate Cary of the US News and World Report wrote an article talking about lowering the drinking age. “There was no need for “pregaming” – binge drinking in private apartments or dorms before heading out in public” says Cary. If the drinking age was lowered we would not have to worry about college students buying and selling fake IDs, distributing alcohol to minors, and less turning to drugs because drugs are easier to get than alcohol.
Should the United States lower the legal drinking age, which is now twenty-one, to a more reasonable age, such as eighteen. The legal drinking age is unjust and unfair. Therefore, it should be lowered to eighteen to make all adults equal. Individuals often compare drinking with unsuccessfulness and/or recklessness, and that is not the case at all. Overtime there have been millions of successful and intelligent people that commonly consumed alcohol.
In the United States of America, eighteen years of age is when teenagers are finally considered adults by others around them. As an adult they now have the same rights as everyone around them. With the exception of one law that keeps them in a lower class. This restriction keeping them from being like everyone else is that they are still not able to consume alcohol legally. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act raising the drinking age in all fifty states as well as the District of Columbia to twenty-one years of age (“In the early 1980’s...”).
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed thirty-one years ago in July of 1984. Since then, it has been contested by many that the minimum age should be lowered to eighteen. Arguments ranging from being able to join the military, or courts trying you as an adult at the age of 18 have long been heard. Others will say the United States is too strict with the minimum age with only six percent of countries having a minimum age of twenty-one. This could mean one of two things: either we are too strict, or we are responsible with the laws created to protect young adults from the effects of alcohol.
In 1984, the federal drinking age was raised to twenty-one. Since that time, there have been many positive results, such as the increase of brain activity in the frontal lobe of young people before the drinking age. However, there have also been some negative effects such as an increase of binge drinking near the legal age to drink. As over 100 colleges presidents who favor considering the federal drinking age point out, college students are binge drinking to the point of passing out and potentially dying of alcohol poisoning. MADD and others, however, argue against lowering the drinking age, noting that young adults and alcohol do not mixed because it can result in drunk driving which leads to accidents that can kill or maim people.
Should the legal age for alcohol consumption be lowered? In the United States, The legal drinking age is 21, but in my research, I have found that it is actually allowed, under certain circumstances and situations, to people of even lower age. Though all 50 US states have set their minimum drinking age to 21, exceptions do exist on a state-by-state basis for consumption at home, under adult supervision, for medical necessity, and other reasons. In fact, all but 5 states, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, under age drinking is permitted. Parents are allowed to furnish alcohol to minors if they are under proper supervision.
Frat parties, for example, serve booze, often, if not always, without the supervision of a responsible adult (aka an adult over the age of 21). Lowering the drinking age to 18 can be beneficial in that responsible drinking can be taught before the student turns 21. My favorite analogy, by Huffington Post writer, Elizabeth Glass Geltman, says, “We don’t have students teach each other how to drive, why is alcohol different?” In her article on Huffington Post, she talks about her college experience in the 70s and early 80s, where the legal drinking age in the US was 18. She talks about how drinking was legal for most students in her senior year of high school and in college, and that beer was commonly served at dances, proms, graduation events, etc.
In some countries, like in Europe the drinking age is set at 18. Even though people in the US think this is insane, this set age has more positive effects than people think it would. It is known that binge drinking is a problem in the US since it has the highest rate in the world for binge drinking. In Europe, teenagers get their license at age 18, and some drinking ages are lower than that, they figure out how to control their drinking before the drive. Unlike in the US, kids drink and then drive because they either have to be home by curfew or they are too scared to call their parents for a ride, and admit they had been under the
Across the country, college students participate in an illegal activity known as underage drinking. The drinking age in America is an ongoing debate of whether it should be kept at 21, or reduced to 18. While some believe lowering the drinking age would make drinking for young kids safer, others presume the opposite. According to Alexis Aguirre, a journalist at the Texas State University Star, “The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. Once 18, a person is legally considered an adult and should be able to drink.”