SUMMARY: In the article, “ The Minimum Legal Drinking Age” written by Traci L Toomey, Carolyn Rosenfeld, and Alexander C. Wagenaar in Alcohol Health & Research World, the reasoning behind the why the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) is 21 is addressed. Till this day similar claims that were used to lower the MLDA many years ago are being applied. Regardless of the continuing debate about the MLDA studies show the effectiveness of a higher MLDA in averting alcohol related deaths and injuries within the youth.The lowering of the MLDA resulted in rates of injuries and deaths increasing. Once the MLDA was increased the rates of injuries and deaths decreased drastically. The advantage of using environmental approaches, being the MLDA, is that it …show more content…
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. Therefore, when the MLDA is higher the overall health of youth will be more protected and many lives can be
“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
Congress and Presidents’ tried to prevent the abuse of alcoholism by passing a law (National Minimum Age Drinking Act) to lower the possibilities of having more accidents, but with the law being created more than a million teens around the world haven’t abided by this law. Imagine that you had a bottle of whiskey that contained seventy-five percent of alcohol and later on you were wasted trying to get to your vehicle so you can drive home, but you got caught driving drunk by a police officer. What could you have done to prevent that from happening? 1) Being responsible and 2) Have a designated driver that would drive you home and 3) Don’t drink at all! Overwhelming the results of seventy-seventy percent of the American public had disagreed with lowering the drinking age from twenty-one years old to a younger age.
The reasoning behind the National Minimum Drinking Age Act is flawed, and the passing of this unnecessary law was aided by incorrect facts about teenage drinking and driving used by Senator Lautenberg and his co-sponsors to garner support for their bill. One of the lawmakers’ main arguments included statistics which said that almost 60 percent
The essay implies no matter how old drinking people are older MLDA will lead to less drinking, fewer injuries and fewer deaths. In other words, if MDLA is lowered to 18 or lower, then young people tend to fall in drunk driving and they will be injured or die. As a statistical example, this essay uses the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s estimation which has saved more than 25,000 lives since 1975 after setting the MDLA 21. This research strengthens this essay’s claim that higher MDLA proves the higher life-saving. On the other hand, the proponent essay says that “drunk driving fatalities are lower now than they were in 1982”, but the author does not uses any statistical research which proves that they are lower
There is a lot of websites that say that if the US lowered the drinking age will increase drunk driving accidents. In procon.org “since 1982… driving fatalities occurred across all age groups….therefore it can not be reliably attributed to MLDA 21”. The biggest argument against lowering the drinking is the driving fatalities. But know there is reason to believe that it will not affect the fatalities. The alcohol flow has not been stopped by MLDA 21.
Although some say lowering the minimum legal drinking age, or MLDA, will only cause more underage drinking and harm the adolescent brain, the MLDA should be lowered to 18 because the legal age of adulthood is 18, and lowering the legal drinking age will cut down on underage drinking, increase responsible drinking, and decrease drunk driving accidents. In Illinois, teenagers get a permit one year before they can legally drive a car on their own, this teaches responsibility and accountability while driving, so why do we not learn how to drink responsibly? Why, on our 21st birthdays do we all go out and get so blackout drunk that our friends have to carry us home? The issue here is that teens are not taught how to drink responsibly so there
Females have an approximately 21.1% increase in alcohol poisoning related visits to the hospital. Although we do see a pretty significant increase in alcohol poisoning visits. That does not mean that everyone involved with this is at the legal drinking age. Lowering the age, however, may have influenced younger teens to peruse this experience as well. This shows that more people are drinking because of this law and one thing will increase for sure and that is motor vehicle
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
This would also impair their organization and planning capabilities and may even lead to depression and suicide. The MLDA should not be lowered due to the responsibility required to an individual and others. Lowering the MLDA would lead to more use of illicit drugs among the persons between 18 and 21 years old. It follows that the younger a person starts to engage in alcohol, the higher the chances of using other illicit drugs. Moreover, when the drinking age was 18 years, the cases of fatal crashes caused by underage drunk drivers were twice as many as
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
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...”).
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.
The article from Journal of Health Economics introduces the impact of minimum legal drinking age laws on alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use. The abuse of alcohol is coming with healthy issue and some considerable spillover effects such as risky behavior, criminal activity, and alcohol related traffic injuries and fatalities. The regulation on alcohol availability in the lower the minimum legal drinking age from 21. The opponents of the MLDA of 21 argue that the age limit encourages young adults under age 21 to consume alcohol in an irresponsible manner and that lowering age would help young adults to learn how to drink gradually, safely. Many studies have investigated the effect of the MLDA law on alcohol consumption.
However, “90% of drunk driving deaths in the United States were found in the over 21 age group” (Gruenewald). For this reason, drunk driving is not directly correlated with the drinking age. In addition, the percent of drunk driving deaths in the United States has reduced at a slower rate than European countries where they have their legal drinking age at eighteen. This suggest that if lowering the drinking age was a success in Europe, it may also be effective here in the United States to diminish the amount of drunk driving deaths. This is because people that become injured due to alcohol or alcohol poisoning are afraid to report their injuries to the hospital or authorities out of fear of illegal consequences for underage drinking.
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