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 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).”
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.
Another reason many people are skeptical is because there are many things that require you to be older than 18 though not by much. With a gun you must be 21, gambling differs between states, and tobacco’s legal age in 4 states is 19(Dejong, 2). There are some who believe that when it comes to on campus drinking issues the professors and staff need to increase their efforts to stop the problem of underage and binge drinking(Dejong, 2). This group believes the problem of binge drinking can’t be solved or helped by lowering the legal drinking
A very important question asked was, Should the minimum legal drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age. I say no because, kids are already getting more addictive to alcohol each day so, no the age should not be lowered so kids don’t think it’s ok to drink at a young age. Stein was unsure of her answer for this, Hillary and, Donald are against this and, Johnson likes this idea. I agree with Hillary and. Donald
Most people argued that teenager’s drinking age should be low so that teenager won’t have any problem drinking and going to prison, however to those who think that it is because of the punishment that teenager’s should have their drinking age lower. My opignion is that thoses thinking could be compare to the idea that because there are many persons going to prison because of murder or something else we should do something so that it when be a crime that people muder or kill. By doing that, yes you did eleminate the fact that people are going to prison but you did not resolve the problem of driving car accident, diseases and many other fact. I think that those solution are laking in the fact that they do not revolve the problems that drinking age for teenager have brought. By punishment and a rewarding we are learning our older are lerning us how we should live and think.
Is the drinking age of alcohol at age 21; too high or too low? Judging by the information I have compiled, there are a wide array of opinions on the appropriateness of the legal drinking age. Although there are a number of reasons that argue against any kind of reform, my stance on the topic is to lower the age down to 18. My first reason for this is if someone is able to serve the country and vote someone into office, they should be able to consume whatever they so desire. Going back to the famous saying “If you are old enough to die you are old enough to vote” I think that this statement pertains well to this situation.
During the panel discussion, my group talked about why we should or shouldn’t change the drinking age. I learned a lot of information on how the alcohol affects the body and brain. I also found out why the law should be changed or remain the same. The discussion showed me that if the law gets changed, is not really that essential because the cons of the law changing doesn’t really outweigh the pros of the law being changed.
I honestly, do not see why it is such a huge deal to lower the drinking age. So many teens drink and I can guarantee you, that they would go ahead and sit up a petition on lowering the drinking age. Also if the drinking age is lowered, there might be less teens underage drinking. I say this because what kid is going to have fun following the rules anyways, not a whole
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.
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.
A lot people question whether the legal drinking age should be lowered, or remain at 21. Some may think it isn’t such a good idea, because of the lack of maturity, and others may think it a good idea, because some people are going to do it anyway. However there are many pros and cons of lowering the legal drinking age. One pro is that the actual age where a person is considered to be an adult is 18.
The drinking age should be lowered, because brains are not fully developed yet, colleges should be able to regulate drinking, and this can solve problems with kids underage drinking. Despite the controversy, the drinking age should decrease for many logical reasons. The drinking age has been a debate between the ages 18 to the age of 21 for a while now. Over the years, studies have showed favors toward the age of 21.
Though people believe it would be good to lower the drinking age, we should look at the death or injury rates where alcohol is the cause, compared to the rates of accidents from people who hadn’t been intoxicated. There has been much data collected over the years showing just how much healthier and safer not only the US is, but many other countries have become since raising the legal drinking age to twenty-one. If nothing else, look at the one third of every twenty-five, thousand people that die every year due to alcohol related crashes where the victim wasn’t even intoxicated. Not only does alcohol have life changing effects on the people drinking it, but also everyone around
Underage drinking is illegal yet very popular. There are many different reasons why teenagers drink. Some teenagers drink to appear cool, while on the other hand others drink for stress related issues. It has now become a rampant activity being done by many teenagers of today’s generation. Some teenagers sneak and drink at parties and other places without their parents even knowing.
