...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 current...
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...The Effects of Raising or Lowering the Legal Drinking Age The debate about whether the legal drinking age should be raised or lowered is a common debate in the public domain. The decision on what age one begins drinking is determined by various factors which involve the gene combination of the person and the immediate environment around the person (Vingilis and Smart 415). For instance, the changes that adolescents go through in their biology and physiology can influence the age at which they start drinking alcohol. The behavior of a child influences his environment as the child gets to make friends and these influence the age at which the child can start to experiment with alcohol. Raising or lowering the legal drinking age is bound to raise major concerns. This will be a major concern for parents whose children are directly affected by the issue. Likewise, adolescents and youth are bound to get affected thus they are likely to engage in this debate too (Vingilis and Smart 415). Raising the legal drinking age lowers death rate. According to Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Congress members who met to mark the 20th anniversary of passing of a federal law that rose the minimum legal drinking age to 21, about 20,000 lives were saved through the passing of the law (MADD). The law signed in July 17, 1984 by the then President Reagan set the minimum drinking age as 21. An estimate by MADD approximates that underage drinking kills 6,000 people every year through traffic...
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...Howard ENG-123 13 Jun 2015 Lowering the Drinking Age The drinking age in America needs to be changed to align our cultural values with the rest of the worlds. In America there is no real reason to support the fact that we need to wait until the age of 21 to drink. To think that 21 is the age when everyone is mature enough to drink is just speculation. At 18 you are allowed to buy tobacco and even tattoo yourself. So how could lawmakers come to the decision that we need to wait until 21 in order to consume a beer? The main argument against keeping the drinking age at 21 is the fact that it may cause problems in the development in the frontal lobes of the brain. There is only minimal supporting evidence that actually shows any problems in normal drinking habits. Many people feel that the drinking age that is set in place is biased and a form of prohibition to the people who are 18 to 20. We need to stand up to lawmakers in the government and ensure that the laws that are emplaced to protect and allow for “adults” to make their own decisions. The fact that the brain may not be fully developed until the age of 21, the drinking age should be lowered because you are considered an adult at 18 and can die for your country and the primary reason states are refusing to change the law is for fear of losing federal funding for roads from the government. There is controversy surrounding the primary argument against lower the drinking age which is the assertion that the brain is...
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...DRINKING AGE LIMITS INTRODUCTION Drinking age laws cover a broad spectrum of behaviors concerned with where, when and under what circumstances beverage alcohol can be purchased and consumed. The minimum legal drinking age refers to the minimum age at which beverage alcohol can be consumed. This may be different from the minimum age at which beverage alcohol can be purchased. Some countries, including Greece and Indonesia, focus their legislation solely on the legal age of purchase of beverage alcohol, and do not address a minimum age for consumption. Legislation for the minimum drinking age in United States varied from state to state over a decade ago, ranging from 18 to 21. Driven largely by the desire to curb traffic fatalities associated with alcohol consumption, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required all states to raise their purchase and public possession of alcohol age to 21, or risk losing federal highway funds under the Federal Highway Aid Act. By 1987 all states had complied with the 21 minimum age law. A large body of research exists regarding the impact of raising the minimum drinking age to 21 in the United States. Some of the research focuses specifically on whether the new law has had the desired effect of lowering traffic fatalities. Other studies have looked at the law’s impact on patterns of youth drinking especially at the college level and specifically binge drinking. This should be seen in context of a 28% drop in alcohol...
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...a long time doesn’t mean it has to change. For example, the legal minimum drinking age was set at 21 since 1984. Since 1984, “drinking and daily alcohol use have declined among young adults aged 18-20 years” (Wechsler and Nelson 987). This change was needed because alcohol consumption was a major threat to human health. Lowering the drinking age to 18 means that we are just ignoring what our history has presented us. It is common sense that alcohol is a major threat to general well-being. Allowing 18 year olds to legally buy and consume alcohol would simply allow them to harm themselves and others...
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...The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 and young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, bars and pubs because; outlawing alcohol consumption in colleges for those under 21 is making the problem worse, At the age of 18 the law see’s kids as fully mature, drinking would take place in public and could therefore be supervised by police or security guards. Although the legal age is 21 years of age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing "forbidden fruit," a "badge of rebellion against authority" and a symbol of "adulthood." As a nation we have tried prohibition legislation twice...
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...Report: Draft March 3, 2014 Lower Drinking Age Turning 18 is a big year, probably one of the biggest in our young lives. When you turn 18 a million doors open, you can change your name, get tattooed, vote, join the military, go to jail and be trialed as an adult, basically anything you can think of, except one thing and that’s buying/drinking alcohol. That’s one thing that always got my attention: why 21? If you are considered by the law an adult at 18 then you should be treated like one in all aspects of it. Everyone has their own opinion on this matter, and there have been numerous arguments for each side. As I was surfing the web, I came across an article by Matt Nagin. Nagin’s article was “Top 3 Reasons Why the Drinking Age Should Not Be Lowered to 18”. It grabbed my attention so I decided to give it a look, Nagin’s 3 top reasons were, drunk driving, binge drinking and alcohol poisoning, and violent behavior all in that order. According to the article Nagin states that there is an average of 17,000 deaths related to drunk driving. This survey was conducted in 2010. The numbers have slightly gone down (Nagin). From all the drunken driving statistics rates were the highest among 21-25 year old at 23.4% and 15.1% for 18-20 year olds, but after the age of 25 the rates decrease (Nagin). The way I see it keeping the drinking age at 21 is not really making a difference because as the statistics show most drunk drivers are over the age of 21 anyways, so what good does it do...
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...Suppose the government raises the legal drinking age in the UK from 18 to 21. Conduct an economic analysis of this policy to examine its impact on affected markets. The minimum legal drinking age or MLDA is the most well studied alcohol control policy. It is a controversial problem with different empirical studies showing opposite results. In my opinion the change of age from 18 to 21 will lead to lower demand and will cause prices to go up. The consumption of alcohol affects the economy in opposite ways- every beverage sold raises the welfare but the problems coming from alcohol (deaths, injuries, crimes and reduced workforce productivity) lowers welfare. The change of the MLDA is an answer to the question whether the economy is better off with more drinking or not. There are many studies some saying that the raise of the MLDA is going to cause more drinking. A very important thing that we mustn’t forget is the credibility of these studies. They have been carried out most of them in the 1970s and 80s and all of them in the USA. We need to consider that in the past people perceived things differently and results may not be the same today. Besides the studies were carried out in the USA which has a different culture than the UK. According to Phillip Huff (http://www.scribd.com/doc/31945082/The-21-Year-Old-Minimum-Legal-Drinking-Age-An-Economic-based-Analysis-of-Problems-with-the-MLDA-and-Potential-Solutions, page 2) the law as it is now is causing the loss of billions of dollars...
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...| 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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...The United States of America states that the legal drinking age be 21, however, this wasn’t always the case for America. After World War II, the young soldiers that retuned from the war wanted to feel more involved with the country, thus, changing the laws of the drinking and voting age to 18. In July 17, 1984 Ronald Reagan signed into law that the Uniform Drinking Age Act mandating all states to adopt 21 as the legal drinking age within 5 years ("MADD - History."). The reasons for this change was the amount of alcohol-related fatalities and drunk driving crashes. The Uniform Drinking Age Act is reaching it’s 40th anniversary and many people question, should we maintain under this law or is it time to change it once again? Although the debates...
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...Should the Legal Drinking Age be Lowered? The legal drinking age should remain 21. The United States minimum legal drinking age of 21 years old is set at the highest in the world. People consume alcohol for many different reasons; celebrations, anxiety, depression, peer pressure and boredom. This group of people includes teenagers. It is very easy for teens to get ahold of alcohol whether it be from the cabinets in their own homes or from older friends and family members, who would buy it for them. Teenage drinking has become one of the largest social issues today. More than 25,000 lives have been saved because of the MLDA (minimum legal drinking age). When states had lowered drinking ages in the past, the underage drinking problem was worse than ever before in the US. To have a better understanding on the controversy around the legal drinking age, some background information may be helpful. Kids are now experimenting with alcohol at early ages than they have ever before. Teens who are drinking can be affected in many different ways. Alcohol has been linked to a wide range of illnesses such as cancer, high blood pressure and liver disease. Some studies and surveys have shown that between the ages of 12-21, young adults have consumed alcohol at least once. Every year there are about 5,000 deaths in young people as a result in underage drinking. However with the ratings and percentages of teens drinking there are some ways to educate and possibly prevent the negative...
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...Countless other misleading statistics are being called “scientific facts” to try to support the increased legal minimum drinking age. For example, one common statistic that is being used is that with the higher legal drinking age alcohol-related car accidents among sixteen to twenty-year-olds decreases. Supporters of the twenty-one minimum legal drinking age are leaving out the most important part of the study. A “drastic increase” for alcohol-related car accidents occurs in the twenty-one to twenty-four-year-old age group (Minimum). The problem is not being fixed or reduced. The problem is still present just not in the same age group. The information being shared is unreliable because the supporters of the higher legal drinking age are not giving all the details of the study. Only facts that support their cause are being used....
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...because of the taboo allure paired with peer pressure from other students that may not know the effects of alcohol. Alcohol should be entrusted to all adults, and as the law sees the age 18 as “adult” then that should be the cut off mark. This would have brought attention to the colleges that drinking may happen on...
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...Why the drinking age should be lowered When people in the United States reach the age of eighteen, they are no longer considered juvenile. They have the right to choose their political leaders, purchase certain firearms, and even enlist in the military. They are considered legally independent adults. However, they are denied a very simple right: the right to purchase or consume alcoholic beverages. A twenty-year-old man can go legally kill a man or be killed for his country, but he would be denied the right to have a beer with his dinner. An eighteen year old in the US has the right to vote, and serve in the military. If that individual can make the decision of who the next potential leader of our country should be, while at the same time...
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...21: A Time For Change In the United States, it is illegal to buy or consume alcoholic beverages until the age of twenty-one. The United States is one of four other countries with a drinking age of twenty-one or higher. The other three are Indonesia, Mongolia and Palau (Gillespie). The government does not trust anybody under the age of twenty-one to consume alcohol but trusts them to die and kill for them. They also grant 18 year olds the right to marry, vote, pay taxes, take out loans, adopt a child and buy tobacco. The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) should be lowered to eighteen to match the other responsibilities an eighteen year old is granted. The drinking age has been debated throughout history. Many states set the drinking age to eighteen to match the responsibilities given to them at that age after prohibition was ended. These ages were only raised because of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 put into effect by Ronald Reagan. If the states did not agree to this, they were cut back ten percent in their federal highway funds (Devon). The federal government states they give the right to control the drinking age to the state government. This does not make sense since they would cut back ten percent of their highway fund for just thinking about lowering the drinking age, which no state could survive without (Jolley). The supporters of the twenty- one drinking age believe that it has saved many lives. This is true to some degree. The deaths...
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