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Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered

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Submitted By icehockey390
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Brian Basic
Should the Drinking age be reduced?
The drinking age goes way back in history. Drinking began to be considered a problem around the 1900’s. When the government decided to pass the 18th amendment in 1919 alcohol became prohibited throughout the United States. This amendment forced all alcohol underground. The crime rate started to rise drastically throughout the country. The crime rate rose because people were buying and selling alcohol illegally. As a result of all the problems evolved, in 1923 the 23rd amendment repealed the 18th amendment abolishing the banning of alcohol from the United States. That established the modern drinking age, but the age was not the same in all of the states. The states government had the freedom of being able to assign what they felt were a good age for people to start the consumption of alcohol. Most of the states chose the age of twenty-one, but several states allowed the purchase of beer to be at eighteen. "The political failure of general Prohibition meant that American adults would increasingly focus justifications for alcohol policy less on the perils of drunkenness and more on the tenuous concept that adults can drink properly but youths cannot or should not" (Males 190).
This lead to much discussion over the drinking age and the debate will go on for years to come. Throughout this debate, it lead to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which lowered the United States drinking age to eighteen. After this act was passed there was much controversy and soon after the drinking age would go back to twenty one. The states had to follow this statement "All States to raise their minimum drinking age to 21 within 2 years or lose a portion of their Federal-aid highway funds; and encourage States, through incentive grants programs, to pass mandatory sentencing laws to combat drunk driving." (Senate Record

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