Keeping The Drinking Age Essay

In fact, the law may increase the amount of eighteen to twenty year olds who do drink. It has been shown that, especially in college-age students, there is a tendency to not do what they are told, on the contrary, they will do the exact opposite. The problem with the drinking age being twenty-one is that some students drink purely out of defiance). The number of fatalities is down in all age groups, not just teenagers, and cars driven now are much safer than the cars that were being driven in the early 1980’s, and teenagers are much safer drivers, which can be attributed to the decreased amount of fatalities. Also, in other countries that have lower drinking ages, the number of fatalities has

If states did not comply with the act, then the federal government would cut off 10% of that state’s federal highway construction funds. So, the real debate is for the MLDA 21 to be abolished so that states are able to decide whether the legal drinking age should be lowered on a state by state basis and without the fear of dampening their federal funding. In order to keep young adults safe and drug free, the legal drinking age must be kept at 21 years of age or older. Those who fight for MLDA 21 to be abolished argue that lowering the drinking age to 18 is reasonable because at that point U.S. citizens are adults and deserve to have the right to make their own decisions, including drinking alcohol responsibly. One of the most common arguments is, “If I'm old enough to die for my country, I'm old enough to drink a beer.” This is a valid argument, but allowing newly legal adults the ability to drink also gives them access into places such as bars and nightclubs.

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.

In his 1924 article, John Gordon Cooper claims that Prohibition had been an overall net positive force on society. According to Cooper, this force manifests itself in three ways. The first of these is the fact that many lives that would have been lost due to alcoholism and alcohol-related incidents have been saved as the cause of death was removed before it became a threat. Secondly, Cooper observes that the crime rate had gone down by 5.8 in 100,000 since Prohibition had been enacted (p. 193). He links this decrease directly to the absence of alcohol as a contributing factor to society.

Eighteen year olds are adults and should be able to make their own decision on whether or not they want to drink. The legal age to drink alcohol should be lowered back down to eighteen, because almost every other country has a lower drinking age, people will drink more responsibly, and there will be less deaths. The United States should lower the legal drinking age because it is not a problem in other countries that have an even lower drinking age. The United States is among the few countries that have a minimum drinking age of twenty-one, which is the highest MLDA in the world except for in India where it is twenty-five or even thirty is some parts of the country ( ) . Alcohol is banned in sixteen countries, which all of them are

Seat belts do more good than they do harm, and it is illegal to drive without wearing one. Seat belts do more good than they do harm. “According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 15,000 lives are saved each year, because drivers and their passengers were wearing seatbelts when they were in an accident (Opposing Viewpoints)”. If passengers had not been wearing a seatbelt when they got into an accident they

After prohibition the states were left to decide how to govern alcohol consumption. Many states required that the legal drinking age be 21 although some required that a person be 18. By 1984 all US states required that the legal drinking age be 21. In conclusion, although the intention of the Prohibition Act and the age of prohibition was to improve the lives of citizens by reducing health risks, violence and crimes caused by alcoholism, it had the opposite effect. As such, the Prohibition Act and the ensuing age of prohibition did not succeed in reducing the consumption and abuse of alcohol but instead created a virtual “monster” that created more problems rather than finding

To demonstrate this point, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation found that though several European countries lowered the legal drinking age, the percentage of teen intoxication in the United States is equal or lower than that of European teens. As a further illustration, with access to alcohol, this tactic will only encourage teens to drink more. In brief, there is little evidence to show that giving teens the right to drink alcohol will make them more responsible; in fact, the opposite seems to be

This law changed to 21 because all states would “lose a certain percentage of federal highway dollars” (“Frequently Asked”). Not only that but the rates of excessive drinking went up, along with drunk driving. Driving alone is hard enough, especially if the person is a new driver, but add alcohol and there is a very deadly mix. Being able to legally drink at the age of “21 decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for 18- to 20-year-olds by 13% and saved approximately 27,052 lives from 1975-2008” (“Should the Drinking Age”). Since there have been less drunk driving accidents when the minimum age for drinking changed to 21, it is a safer environment if the drinking age is left at 21 instead of being

However, these good things only lasted for a short time until people began to disobey the law. During Prohibition violent domestic crime was down along with arrests for drunkenness and brawling. There were fewer cases of alcohol related crime in general. The prison population dropped and the death rate from the result of alcoholism dropped also. There were also drops in cases of diseases such as cirrhosis and other alcohol related illnesses.