...| Lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 | Sociology 100 | | John Max | | STRAYER UNIVERSITY 12/8/2012 Professor Taylor, Grace Individuals born prior to 1966 had the right to drink alcohol legally in the United States at the age of 18. In 1984 the United States changed its legal drinking age from 18 to 21. The legal drinking age in the United States of America should be lowered from the age of 21 to the age 18. Americans today are mature enough at the age of 18 to drink responsibly. Lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 will have a positive outcome for American society. Lowering the legal drinking age affects the country as a whole, as well as many countries around the world. When considering the issue in a global perspective view, the United States is only one of four countries that have a drinking age as high as 21. In just about every other country around the world there is little or no social pressure to drink. In the countries where the legal drinking age set to 18 irresponsible behavior is never tolerated. Young people learn at home from their parents and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner. Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development states that development occurs in stages. The second stage which is known as the conventional level appears in the teenage years. Kohlberg believes that in this stage young people lose some of their selfishness as they learn to define right and wrong in terms...
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...Drinking age is a common thing in the United States. Based on what I found out in the articles is that the minimum age for a person to drink is at 21. People argued that they should lowered the drinking age to 18. In some parts of the U.S, they are allow to drink, with exception of the Muslims religion. Underage drinking can result an increase on teen pregnancy or a disease. Drinking age can result a brain disorder or even dead. In some college schools 10 out of 20 students have try alcohol and the does not stop them from doing it repeatedly until they can’t handle no more. The idea of drinking age legal is that the government want to lower the legal drinking age to 18, but we know that students are not full develop to drink or do drugs. Perhaps...
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...The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) actually affects more things than people think. Think about how often somebody drinks alcohol to have fun, relax, enjoy a family gathering etc…. With the drinking age being twenty-one in the United States it makes underage teens and young adults want to drink even more. Why someone might ask. One reason is that it gives teens a sense of adulthood. When teens take a drink of that alcohol it gives them that grown up feeling. Just the fact you have twenty-one makes it so urging for teens and young adults. The drinking age should be lowered to eighteen in the United States. If you take a look at driving under the influence rates (DUI) in the United States and compare them to countries with the drinking age eighteen the United States is significantly higher. Why is that? In almost every other country the drinking age is lower than twenty-one found from...
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...Should the Legal Drinking Age Be Changed Back to Eighteen? The debate on the legal drinking age has been going on for many years. More mature adults say that the minimum legal drinking age should be kept at twenty-one. Young adults say that the minimum legal drinking age should be changed back to eighteen. There are many reasons that go behind the opinions of each. People believe that since the age of eighteen is the legal adult age in the United States of America that young adults should be able to make their own decisions on the consumptions of alcohol. Teens are still able to get alcohol due to parents, older siblings, friends, and other family members. Also, allowing eighteen to twenty year-olds to drink alcohol under supervision should lower the issue of underage drinking, and it will be good for the economy too. However, there are a lot of consequences that come with drinking at a younger age, such as eighteen year-olds have lower maturity than twenty-one year olds. Therefore, eighteens year-olds are more likely to get into negative alcohol and alcohol-related outcomes. With taking all opinions into consideration, you can see why this has been an ongoing debate on whether the minimum legal drinking age should be changed back to eighteen year-olds. I believe the debate should conclude on the prevision of allowing young adults to have the ability to make their own decisions upon alcohol consumption. Drew Saylor noted the effectiveness of the minimum legal drinking age, “The...
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...Edwin Muniz English 1010 Lowering the Legal Drinking Age There are many controversial topics in today’s news involving the younger generation. One of the most talked about topics is lowering the legal drinking age in the United States. Lowering the drinking age could have a really good impact on society as a whole. Although there are people that believe that lowering the age limit will have a really bad effect on the US, the good outweigh the bad. The drinking age being at 21, makes those underage look at alcohol sort of like the “forbidden fruit,” making them want to drink even more, sort of as a rite of passage. Lowering the drinking age to 18 seems almost undeniable considering that in the US, 18 is considered the age of adulthood. In the United States, turning 18 gives you the right to vote in elections, smoke tobacco, serve on juries, get married, sign legal contracts, be prosecuted as adults, and even join the military. Just imagine being 18 in the military, watching everyone 21 and older having a cold beer while you’re sitting there drinking water because you’re not old enough to drink alcohol. Not only are you risking your life being in the military like the others, you are also able to do everything the older members are able to do but, you absolutely cannot have an alcoholic beverage. In 1984 the U.S. Government raised the legal drinking age to 21 in an effort to decrease instances of drunk driving and related injuries and fatalities. However, this attempt...
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...Alcohol consumption by youth in the United States has been a topic of concern for quite some time now. The law passed down in July, 1984 states, the age of 21 years as the minimum age for purchasing and publicly possessing alcoholic beverages . For this assignment I have chosen to critique a fallacy in the argument regarding the dispute of a decrease of the current age of consumption and purchasing alcohol in the United States. I believe the arguments discussed in the selected article to be fallacious because they deal generally with the positive results portrayed as an outcome in the reduction of the legal age of 21 to 18. Through analysis of this article, it will be evident that a reduced legal drinking age is a fallacious and flawed argument. Through research, I discovered a blog that is proactive with the reduction of the current drinking age. The blog states that once people turn 18 they’re considered adults, they’re responsible, and able to handle themselves. It goes on to explain the fact that once you’re 18 you are able to vote, drive, and make the decision to go to the military “why can they be mature and responsible enough to vote for a person who is going to run our country, mature and responsible enough to fly an airplane and go to war for our country, and third be mature and responsible enough to drive a vehicle”. Though this argument may be true and those responsibilities are substantial, this argument still remains fallacious as a whole. I believe the major fallacy...
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...Should the legal drinking age be reduced to 18 years of age? When a citizen of the United States reaches the age of 18, they receive all their rights of a legal adult, from voting too marriage. They receive all of them, however, except for the right to legally purchase and consume alcohol. In this essay I will discuss why the drinking age of 21 should be lowered to 18 due to country wide disobedience of the law, How most developed countries already have their legal drinking age reduced to 18, and how it is counterproductive to society to give people some of their rights at 18 but not all of them. I choose these due to most parents and their kids drinking before 21 regardless the law is in place, how places like Europe have their drinking age set to 18, and how kids do not fully feel like an adult and use drinking as a way to be irresponsible, when they should see drinking alcohol as one of their rights....
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...The legal drinking age should be lowered in the United States. This makes the most sense because kids legally become an adult at the age of 18 where they are granted other rights as well, such as the ability to enlist in the army. If we are legally an adult and trusted to protect our country we should be trusted with a couple of drinks. Lowering the drinking age also decreases unsafe drinking in regulated environments and less drunk driving accidents. With regulated drinking kids become more aware with their alcohol tolerance and get used to it in a safe environment without doing it illegally. This creates a safer environment for everyone. With kids more aware of their intake of alcohol less accidents such as drunk driving will happen. The is why the drinking age should be lowered to the age of when you actually become an adult. Kids legally become an adult at the age of 18. At this time in your life you receive the rights and responsibilities of adulthood. Some examples of the choices that you might or can make are enlisting in the army, voting for president, buying lottery tickets...
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...For years people have argued over whether or not the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in America should be lowered or stay the same. One of the main controversial issues regarding alcohol consumption in our society today is whether or not the legal drinking age is appropriate. Both sides to the argument have very considerable points that support their side of the argument. Do to these disagreements, the issue of whether or not to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 has become controversial. The best solution is to allow citizens that are 18 and older to drink but also follow strict rules and regulations to make sure it is not taken advantage of. This solution will help keep people safe while also allowing those 18 or older to have a good...
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...3/24/2013 Argumentative research paper Why Not Change the Drinking Age Back to 18? In the United States of America you are considered a legal adult at the age of 18 years old. You have all the major rights of a fully grown adult, voting, enlisting in the military, buying a house, buying tobacco products and many more. However there is one right that was taken away from the 18 year old adult back in 1984. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was put into place which changed the legal minimum drinking age from 18 years old to 21. Does this law mean that you are not really a mature adult until you are 21 or should the drinking age be brought back down to 18 when you receive all the other rights of a mature adult. It makes perfect sense that this right should be returned to young adults for plenty of reasons and also holds potential solutions to one of the nation’s biggest alcohol related problems. What does it mean to be an adult? United States law states that you are legally considered an adult at the age of 18. It makes sense right? You can buy a house, enlist in the U.S. military, get married and loads of other rights you don’t have until the age of 18. But United States law also states that all states must enforce a legal minimum drinking age of 21. We are the only major nation to have such a high drinking age. The drinking age wasn’t always this high though. On July 17th 1984 the national minimum drinking age act was passed which meant that 18 year old young adults...
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...The biggest difference between Britain and the United States is the laws that each country holds. Some of the cultural aspects of each country are very dissimilar which has led to a vast difference in many of their laws. Also, because of the distance between the United States and Britain it makes it almost impossible for the two countries to hold similar attitudes, therefore it is difficult to agree to the same things and have the identical ideas and beliefs towards legislation. Some of the main laws that differ in each country are the legal drinking age, the legal driving age and the laws on guns. Likewise not only are the laws different in the United States and Britain, but they are also varied depending on which state you are from. This...
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...Should the Legal Drinking Age be lowered to 18? Ryan A. Conklin is a soldier who enlisted into the Army at the age of 17. He was deployed to Iraq when he was just 20 years old. In his book, he wrote about his daily duties of a soldier in Iraq and all of the sights and sounds that he witnessed. He makes a comment in his book about the drinking age in the United States. He states “I was twenty years old, and on April Fools’ Day, I would turn twenty-one finally legal to drink in a bar. Unfortunately, I was two-and-a-half years into serving my country and was living in a combat zone, and I found it odd that until then I was still not allowed to drink alcohol in the States. A law I hope will be changed in my lifetime.” Different cultures and societies respond different to alcohol in terms of how much they can drink and what their bodies can handle. The legal age to consume alcohol in the U.S. should be lowered to eighteen for the sake of the people, the economy, and safety. When a male or female turns the age of 18, they now reserve the right to serve in the military. When war broke out with Iraq, people were chosen to go over that just turned the age of 18. In the book “An Angel in Hell” by Ryan A. Conklin, he stated “he would always wake up hoping that that day was not the last day he would be on this Earth. He was always on high alert while on patrols, dodging bullets and shooting his own gun just to stay alive.” He also said, in his book, “that he found it odd and annoying...
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...the drinking age should be lowered to the age of eighteen. The Minimum Legal Drinking Age has changed from each state setting their own to the government passing the National Drinking Age Act of 1984 making the drinking age twenty-one. The drinking age should be lowered because eighteen is the age of maturity, helps for better control, and helps stop binge drinking and sneaking around. The drinking age should stay at twenty-one because it is medically irresponsible and helps prevent addiction. The bible neither condones nor encourages the usage of alcohol but does warn and gives rules about it. The drinking age should be lowered because it benefits the teaching and control of alcohol. The Drinking Age Should Be Lowered to...
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...Should Abortion be Legal? PHI 103 Should Abortion be legal? Part I: Thesis As we approach a presidential election, a hot topic has been abortion. The candidates have announced their stance of either being pro-choice or pro-life. Many people have based their choices on who they will vote for based on this stance, especially women. The United States of America was founded by those fleeing from religious persecution. In an article from the News Mail Bundaberg, the writer wrote that they did not “believe abortion should be used as a lazy form of contraception, but nor do I believe women's bodies should be legislated. Some say abortion is "playing God", but then so is all medicine” (unknown, 2010) Legalizing abortion guarantees that women receive the basic right to choose what happens with their own reproductive systems. Part II: Argument The right to choose is a big deciding factor in agreeing that abortion should be legal. There are certain instances in which a woman should be able to choose if they would like to continue with their pregnancy. For example, if a woman was raped and became pregnant, they should be able to choose whether or not they would like to have that child. Otherwise, they will end up with a child that they have to take care of that will be a constant reminder of that rape. Another instance is incest. If a woman is pregnant and the fetus is fathered by a family member, that woman should have a right to choose if they would like to have that child or...
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...the drinking age has been in the process for quite some time now. Many people argue that it should be lowered to the age of eighteen, and some people have argued that it shouldn’t be lowered and stay at twenty-one. Though there are many reasons that prove both arguments correct, the law still remains where it was set at. Most say the drinking age should not be lowered because it would increase the danger and deaths to underage drinkers, but that all has to do with the main argument for lowering the age, maturity. In the United States, at the age of 18, people are not able to buy alcohol but are able to join the military, vote, be considered adults, and buy cigarettes which can be as harmful if not more so than alcohol. I propose that we also add being able to legally buy alcohol at the age of 18. Prior to 1984, states were allowed to choose their own legal drinking ages. The legal age limit varied from state to state anywhere between 18 and 21 years of age. “One of the more compelling arguments for setting the age to 21was that the prohibition had only exacerbated drinking, particularly among the young”(Seaman 242). In 1984, the United States congress passed the national minimum drinking age act. Ronal Reagan instigated this act when he set up a study to look at the drunken driving problem in the United States. Scientists recommended that there should be a national uniform drinking age of 21. Since then, there have been many that oppose and want to reform the drinking age. ...
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