Raising The Drinking Age Research Paper

The drinking age in the United States is 21. Many people are for it and many people are against lowering the drinking age. 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.

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.

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.” A person becomes legally emancipated at the age of 18. Emancipation is when one is considered an adult in the eyes of the law. Some “perks” of being an adult include: the right to get married, buy a house, or be charged as an adult in a court of law. Proponents of lowering the drinking age may say if one can buy a house, why can he not buy a alcoholic beverage? According to the same article, “If I want to vote democrat, I can. If I want to ink up my body, I can. If I want to fill my lungs with smoke, I can do that too. Going wine tasting with some friends, however, is somehow too far.” Aguirre also

It is also no secret that younger teens will try to access alcohol in some way to look “cool”. One problem with lowering the drinking age, is it will allow alcohol to find its way onto school campuses faster than it does now. When younger students in high school and middle school see 18-year-olds drinking alcohol more frequently and openly because it is legal, the younger students will want to resemble the “mature” seniors and drink more as well. Since many times seniors are friends with younger students, they would be more willing to provide them with alcohol off campus. This would lead to a trickledown effect of younger and younger student consuming alcohol. As students are introduce to alcohol at a younger age, it opens the pathway to other abusive substances such as illegal and prescription drugs. All the substances will begin to hurt the students brain and body as it is trying to develop during these crucial years. Even though underage teens consume alcohol on occasion, lowering the drinking age would give them the ability to consume it more frequently and greater

The drinking age in America is currently set to the age of twenty-one, but should it really be? Day-after-day people abuse this law and partake in underage drinking; however, these people who abuse the law are considered adults. Eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-year-old citizens are given the responsibilities of being an adult, should they not also be given the rewards of being an adult? That is why the drinking ages should be lowered from the age of twenty-one to the age of eighteen.

Lowering the MLDA (minimum legal drinking age) would positively impact society. The rise of the MLDA might have prevented some issues but it created far more than it prevented. Many other states already have or are on their way to have a MLDA of 18. At the age of 18, you are legally an “adult” but are restricted from many rights given to other adults because of unknown reasons, but are given the right to do far more dangerous things than consuming alcohol whenever they please. Lowering the MLDA from 21 to 18 in the state of New York will significantly solve more issues and create happier and safer environment for the adolescents of the ages 18 through 21.

Lowering the drinking age to 18 would not have much impact in the attitude of young people since there is no much difference in maturity in 3 years. This statement is supported by a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower. She stated that “There isn’t much difference in maturity between 21 and 18; if the age is younger, you’re getting exposed to it at a younger age, and you don’t freak out when you get to campus.” In the United Sates you are treated as an adult

An issue that has yet to be solved is “Should the minimum drinking age be lowered from twenty-one years to eighteen years?” People have been in controversy over this topic since the late 1900s. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984, which required states to raise the legal age to purchase and possess alcoholic substances to twenty-one. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1991 after the Act was passed, the rate of alcohol consumption among people eighteen to twenty years of age dropped from fifty-nine percent to forty percent; the rate of alcohol consumption among people twenty-one to twenty-four years of age dropped from seventy percent to fifty-six percent (www.cdc.gov). More than fifty scientific

18 year olds are allowed to vote, this is something that directly impacts the future of the United States and everyone in it, but they are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. An 18 year old can enlist in the military, but he/she is not allowed to drink alcohol? This is a country you can die for before you are allowed to drink alcohol in it. In conclusion, if the legal age of adulthood is 18, then the legal drinking age should be 18, period.

In the 1970’s the drinking age was raise from 18 to 21 the reason the government pass this law was to stop drinking and driving. The government believes that adults 21 were more responsible to not drink and drive. However, why do we still have such a problem with drinking and driving in America? That a drinking age of 21 did not solve our problem. John M. McCardell Jr., president emeritus at Middlebury College argues that we should rise the drinking age. He wrote an article for CNN in 2009 that makes a case for raising the drinking age. This article is call “Drinking Age 21 Doesn’t Work.” This essay like the first one was written in response to the Amerthyst Initiative. A public statement sign by 100 plus college president to lower

A majority of the civilized world has set the drinking age to 18, yet America has decided on the puritanically high age of 21. Until 1987 the drinking age was 18, but in 1987 it was nationally mandated that the age increase to 21, and following this mandate came some very negative consequences. Reports of students cutting class after drinking, classes absences due to hangovers, fighting after drinking, and grades sinking after drinking increased after this law was passed (Engs 2014). The drinking age in America should return to 18 and for three main reasons. The age at which an individual is legally considered an adult is 18, and adults should have the right to do as they please with their own body. The

Undeniably, it may be the unpopular opinion. However, when thinking about future generations and considering other countries, it may be a way of improvement. When the drinking age is changed to perhaps a moderate age of 19 it allows valuable time for teachers, as well as parents, to educate students about alcohol consumption. Not only this, but it also makes college living, in a sense, more secure. As one article stated,” a drinking age of 21 has put colleges and universities in the difficult position of having to police a population of drinkers, half of whom are legally permitted to drink, and half of whom are not. This leads to an enormous amount of illegal drinking on campus. In the end, I favor lowering the drinking age to 19, which would help solve the problem of illegal drinking on campus while still making it illegal for high school students to drink, thereby limiting the flow of legally (and easily) purchased alcohol into younger adolescents’ social networks,” (Steinberg, 5). Many may argue the amount of D.U.I related accidents this may bring forth ; However, the Health Research Fund states that in many countries around the world where they have a lower legal drinking age,” they have seen a greater reduction of drunken driving accidents than the United States, where the legal age is 21.” (“Pros and Cons of Lowering the Drinking Age”) This also states that many of those accidents are related to “thrill” drinking due to the fact that it is somewhat “thrilling” to break the law. Perhaps if the age was lowered we would see a dramatic change in

The debate over what age should be legal for a person to drink has been going on for a long while now. The talk of lowering the drinking age has been because many young people in today’s society believe that since they are adults at the age of 18, then they should be able to decide when they themselves should be able to purchase and consume alcohol. A lower drinking age would have a worse affect rather than a pleasing one, so it would be more beneficial to keep it as it is rather than changing it. Some of the benefits of keeping the drinking age as it is would be: less drunk driving accidents, less brain damage and better decision making.

Many minors or teens do not understand the consequences of drinking, and/or binge drinking. Some states have made the decision of lowering the drinking age to 18 and have realized that it is now backfiring. There has been an excessive increase in the amount of fatalities due to allowing 18 year olds to drink. The drinking age should not be lowered to 18 for many reasons: there would be more car accidents, it ruins the teens’ or minors’ bodies, and teens and minors do not understand the consequences and how they affect their future.

Another opposition to the legal drinking age is that 21 years old does not stop teenagers from underage drinking, so why keep it at 21 years old? There are so many kids drinking during high school and college when they are under the age of 21 years, they believe that it should be 18 years of age. Kids that believe the drinking age should be lowered are wrong because it just makes school harder for them to achieve at. Also if seniors in high school are allowed to have alcohol that just means underclassmen will also.