Summary: Keeping The Drinking Age

Since 1984 there has been a federal act that strongly advises states not to allow citizens under the age of 21 from drinking alcoholic beverages. To this day there are still people arguing about this law, both for and against it. Having a minimum drinking age set at 21 is a popular ongoing debate that has many supporters and disputers.

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. “There’s No Benefit to Lowering the Drinking Age” explains, on average about eleven teens die daily as a result of drunk driving (Voas 464). When teens throw a party, alcohol is usually involved. Then once the party is over the kids have to get home somehow and they often drive themselves. When an alcoholic drink is placed in an eighteen-year-old hand decisions are made that harm them and others

Underage drinking is a major topic of discussion across the United States; however, many believe that the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen. Those individuals feel this way due to the

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.

Alexus University, like a good portion of universities and institutes of higher learning in the United States, has become known as a party school. The issue of underage drinking has become a matter of great concern for the university, as they believe that this is working to damage their reputation as a serious institute of learning; instead of students applying to the school because they want to learn, officials are noticing an ever increasing trend in the types of applicants who are looking to attend the school. In particular, they are seeing an increase in the number of average and below average students who are applying, students whose records and attitudes indicate that they are less concerned with education and more concerned with having a good time.

But while it has succeeded in that, it is also believed that tougher rules, such as DUI rules and seatbelt safety rules have also played a part in this decrease. However, this higher drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking, its only “driven it underground,” Gabrielle Glaser states in her NY Times article. It has been driven underground to the riskiest settings, high school parties and frat parties that are unsupervised. This age raise segregates the drinking away from adults that can model moderation in drinking. If an 18-year-old high school senior is shown by his/her parent(s) how to drink responsibly and in moderation, I believe that it would greatly help in reducing the chance of making bad decisions by overdoing it, such as driving while drinking. Teaching children to drink safely starting while they’re 18 and living with their parents will help them develop healthy habits which will stick with them, helping them drink

Why the drinking age is set the way that it is? The national drinking age act of 1984 stated that among 18-20 year old in areas where the drinking age had been lowered have more opportunities of having an accident. Some collage contend that by lowering that drinking age college would be able to bring booze out into the campus and educate students on responsible consumption. For a while Louisiana was a safety place for thirsty teens to drink until the state passed a law that made illegal to buy alcohol if you were under 21. Mothers and many other began to protest for a uniform national drinking age of 21 to help eliminate and keep alcohol out of the hands of less immature 18 years old. I would thinking that the problem wouldn’t be really if you should drink at 18 because you could be immature. Any person can be immature at any age. So therefore I am in favor by lowering the drinking age to 18.

Picture yourself at this amazing party, you are having the time of your life, but you realize that there are so many people trashed and you are the only one that is not as wasted. The neighbors call the police department complaining that there is so much noise happening next door, that they want the police to shut it down or to at least tell them to be quiet. Well imagine your friend answering the door to the police but saying something incredibly stupid. The cops tell you to turn down the music, they really don’t care that you are eighteen and drinking because they know that it is the legal age. You see, most people would disagree that the drinking age should be eighteen because they think that we are still very

Drinking is harmful at any age, and especially to the developing brain of a teenager. Alcohol is a poison that we use for recreation. Drinking it can lead to many physical and mental issues for anyone. It can seriously endanger relationships as well. Alcohol consumption

The first and most used of the three arguments is that it could reduce or even eliminate unsafe drinking activities. One of the most dangerous times for drinking in the United States is between the ages of 18 - 20. Once a person reaches the age of 18, he or she gains all of his or her legal adult rights, except the right to drink. By allowing supervised drinking ability for those in the age bracket of 18 - 20, it could reduce or even eliminate risky drinking behaviors that can lead to bad decisions. Besides, it has not stopped teen drinking, and it probably never will. 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. In these countries, there has been a very large downsize of drunk driving accidents, while in the United States, where the legal age is 21, there is a far larger number of these accidents, some of which tend to be fatal. The third

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

It apears that children who exprienced drinking at young age will also continously and habitually drink in the future once they grow up. They do not simple do this occasionally but it has become a frequent and habitual addiction (Christiansen et al. 7). In totality, drinking alcoholic beverages of teenagers is not is unhealthy, unsafe, and unacceptable. More and likely teens that drink are trailing behind in their education because of how alcohol affects them so bad. Some parents allow their children drink alcoholic beverages under certain circumstances with their

There has been research that shows the negative effects of lowering the drinking age that goes way beyond drunken incidents. The February 2013 issue of “Mental Health Weekly Digest” showed the findings of Dr. Andrew D. Plunk of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It is quite obvious that the most abused drug by adolescents is alcohol, and it can have lasting effects. "Furthermore, human brain development continues into the third decade of life, raising concern that heavy adolescent alcohol misuse may produce cognitive deficits and impairment in memory and attention” Plank proclaimed. “Numerous studies have linked binge drinking to poorer academic performance (Mental Health Weekly Digest).” He surveyed citizens born between 1949 and 1972, a total of 24,088 people. In his research, he saw the correlation. Even though he saw that the lowered drinking age didn’t necessarily create greater alcohol consumption, but he saw that more people were binge drinking at a high level. He realized that since they were drinking before the age was increased, they were more alcohol dependent going into adulthood. He noted that college kids aren’t the only concern for binge drinking, but all of the people who have been drinking consistently for

If the legal drinking age should be lowered or stay the same is an issue that is constantly talked about. One side thinks that the law is counterproductive and can cause underage teens to binge drink. While the other side believe that the law saves lives and it would be dangerous to lower the drinking age. Both sides have research and statistics to back up their position. Many who disagree with the drinking age believe that when someone can pay taxes or enlist in the military they should be able to make their own decisions about drinking. On the contrary the opposing side believes that the legal drinking age of 21 causes less alcohol related deaths.

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