...Should the legal driving age be raised to 18? The age at which you can legally drive varies from country to country, but in many places it is lower than 18, but the states are determined to change this. The driving age should not be increased to a minimum of 18. The driving age should stay where it currently is (between the ages 16 and 17) because it would allow young adults to gain independence and responsibility, it provides an early start for becoming better drivers, and allows young adults to have jobs and participate in after school activities such as sports, clubs, and community service. Keeping the driving age to where it is currently set would benefit both young adults and their parents. It gives young adults the chance to gain independence and responsibility by taking care of a car...
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...related to alcohol consumption. Fellow year 12 and Mrs Thomas there is much research showing the benefits of raising the legal drinking age in Australia from 18 to 21. I believe it is the right thing to do for the good of our health and the good of our futures. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heavy drinking. Excessive alcohol consumption affects how our young brains develop. Studies have shown that alcohol consumption negatively affects academic performance and can impair judgement resulting in risk taking behaviours, unsafe or unwanted sex or injury. Our brains continue to develop into our 20’s. Areas of the brain that undergo the most dramatic changes during adolescence are the frontal lobe and the hippocampus.These are areas of the brain that are associated with motivation,planning,judgement, decision making, language, impulse control and addiction. Aspects that heavily affect people of our age. Alcohol is a neurotoxin. Neurotoxins are substances that are poisonous or destructive to nerve tissue. In simple terms, alcohol poisons the brain. Excessive alcohol consumption at a young age interferes with vitamin B absorption; this prevents the brain from working properly. Professor John Toumbourou of the Deakin University School of Psychology says that ‘Alcohol causes permanent brain damage in young people, and raising the legal age will reduce not only youth alcohol problems but also other forms of drug use.’ P-Plate drivers are 3 times more...
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...know the worries parents go through when their teens reach the driving age. In California the legal driving age is 16 years old at age 16 teenagers are not fully developed and not able to make the right decisions and safe choices while driving. Teens driving at an early age is a convenience for parents and teens alike; however, the dangers distracted, irresponsible, and reckless driving, and the poor decisions teens make are enough reason to raise the legal driving age to at least 18. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 16% of car crashes are due to distracted driving. Car accidents are the number one killer of teens in the United States. The way teenagers rely on their mobile devices today increases the risk of accidents due to distracted driving hugely. Whether they are checking a text or taking a call any time that teens have their eyes off the road it is a potentially life threatening situation. Teenagers around the age of 16 do not fully understand the danger they are creating by driving distracted they see it as just catching up with their friends or updating Facebook. Raising the driving age to at least 18 will decrease the number of accidents caused each year by distracted driving. Allowing more time for a teen to develop the skills necessary to decide to leave the phone alone will be beneficial to society, making the roads a safer place for everyone. Raising the driving age the idea is gaining momentum in the fight to save lives of teenage...
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...today, causing an uncanny amount of accidents and deaths each year with the decisions they carelessly make. Premature decisions have caused many preventable deaths. The driving age should be raised to 18 because teenagers today have caused more problems on the road than thought before with their lack of experience and rebellious nature, the influence of drugs or alcohol, and rule breaking. Teenagers are known to be some of the most spontaneous and indecisive of the general population, and that aspect does not change when they step behind the wheel of a car. There are many factors contributing to teenagers making risky decisions. According to the California DMV,...
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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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...College students and soldiers are being forced to drink unsafely in the privacy of their homes because they are not legally able to purchase or consume alcohol. Minors are surrounded by their drunken peers every day and want to join in on the fun, but can’t legally drink. They are forced to drink heavy amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time, and this leads to alcoholism, drunk driving, heart and liver disease, and alcohol poisoning. Over time lowering the legal drinking age to eighteen will greatly reduce binge drinking which will result in less alcohol related deaths. Binge drinking is having ten or more drinks on one occasion. Binging can lead to violence, alcohol poisoning, drunk driving, and alcoholism, all of which can be deadly. This has become a major problem in the United States. The majority of binge drinkers are minors, people under the legal drinking age of 21. Over the last five years, the number of students binge drinking went up three to five times, which means the number of alcohol related deaths per year is also rising. This is a new problem that was a result of raising the drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. If it was lowered back to eighteen there would be no need to binge drink. Over time binge drinking will stop being the new thing to do, and less people will...
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...inattentive 16 year old who recently received their license behind the wheel, the lives of all four teenagers become more at risk with every inch traveled down the pavement by that car. Statistics have shown one of every five 16-year-olds will be in a severe motor vehicle crash within two years of getting their license- and that number is only rising- yet only for drivers 17 years old and younger. At 18, the rate of crashes drastically declines. The radical but now new idea of raising the legal driving age is most assuredly a controversial issue, and is gaining momentum, but if the lives of over 5000 teens lost in the year 2009 to motor vehicle crashes can’t convince America of the desperation in this cause, what will? Sixteen year olds are mentally immature and incapable of handling a motor vehicle. Now, by opening with such a bold statement it is only logical that proven facts, studies, and evidence are necessary to prove such a point. A study done at the National Institute of Mental Health concluded that at the age of 16, the adolescent brain remains undeveloped in vital areas that regulate impulse control and the contemplation of a present action’s future consequences. For driver’s, these qualities are essential to staying alive on today’s highways as apposed to becoming a stain on them. Unfortunately this area also controls the extreme highs and lows felt by teenagers in the form of radical emotions, giving them 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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...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 could...
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...As teens you continually await and look forward to the day of your 16th birthday. On your 16th birthday you are legally allowed to get a driver’s license and drive on the roads without parent supervision. You are finally free from having to ask your parents to drive you and your friends around. But what if someone took this freedom away from you or postponed it? Many states are putting restrictions on 16 year olds drivers, like limiting the amount of people you can have in your car, and how late you can be on the roads. Other states like New Jersey have raised the legal driving age up to 17 or even 18. They believe that by raising the legal driving age will minimize the amount of crashes and make the roads safer. But no matter what the...
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...The legal drinking age needs to be lowered because fewer people will abuse alcohol , adult supervision will help teenagers at a young age ,and drinking helps with anxiety and depression. If the legal drinking age is decreased many teens would more than likely start drinking wisely. Adult supervision will tell the teens when enough is enough. If the teenagers suffers with anxiety or depression they could drink and feel better about what they are suffering and going through. If the drinking age is lowered many alcoholics would learn how to control their drinking habits. Even though the majority of humans argue that we should not lower the legal drinking age, but raise it, raising it could be a bad idea. Having the age remains the same or raising...
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...In the western world, the nature of free will deeply branded in the people’s heart. People vote for everything and what’s the biggest success made by people’s free will recently is Brexit. Among all the topics that people discussed for years, the legal drinking age may be the most popular topic. After helping the Britain exiting from the EU, people now start to devote themselves to lower the legal drinking age from 21 years old to 18years old. Some people consider staying the limit as 21 is hidebound, but I believe it’s not and the legal drinking age should be 21. Before stating viewpoints that defend why legal drinking age should be stay 21, historical perspective on this issue is indispensable. The first question is why the legal drinking age is 21. The reason the government set the age limit to 21 is because the concept that a person becomes a full adult at age 21 dates back centuries in English common law; 21 was the age at which a person could vote and become a knight. Since a...
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...The laws regulating the legal drinking age of 21 have saved nearly 900 lives in traffic accidents alone. Personally, I believe that the law should continue throughout the United States. Since 1988 all 50 states have a minimum age of 21. In “Keeping Legal Drinking Age at 21 Saves 900 Lives Yearly: Study,” Bahar Gholipour argues that the legal drinking age should remain at 21. As a contrasting opinion, in “The Drinking Age Is Past Its Prime,” Camille Pagila states that the drinking age of 21 has pushed young adults down the path of using pills and other drugs. She also claims that setting the drinking age at 21 makes the United States different from other Western Nations. Pagila also debates the decrease in drunk-driving deaths and argues that there are other reasons for the decrease in fatal accidents, such as the use of seatbelts and higher DWI penalties. Pagila declares, “Today, furthermore, there are many other causes of traffic accidents, such as the careless use of cell phones or...
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...Imagine a 16 year old girl that's going to drive and her two friends getting into a car she starts driving and right away there’s a stop light, while they're waiting the friend in the backs asks the girl driving to turn around to look at a text on her phone as the girl turns around to look unknowingly her foot slips off the break and starts rolling into the intersection and nobody notices because they're all still looking at the girl's phone seconds later a car hits the passenger side and flips the car, by 12 hours later they all had passed at the hospital. Teens are reckless their brains are not mature enough to be driving and not developed enough to make quick rational decisions when driving. This is a reason why the legal driving limit should be raised to 18. Why risk your teen’s life by letting them drive instead of waiting two years till their minds are a little more developed....
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...ATLANTA, March 13 Whatever the statutes may say, the real driving age in the peanut and cotton fields of rural Georgia is whenever a teenager can see over the steering wheel. ''In all honesty, the kids start driving around age 14 in a lot of farm families,'' said Bobby Eugene Parham, a state representative with a voice like the gravel roads of his home county, Baldwin, in central Georgia. ''For families who have trouble finding labor to move their crops, or pick up supplies, it's a necessity to have every kid drive.'' And so Mr. Parham, chairman of the House Motor Vehicles Committee, and many of his colleagues were not pleased when Gov. Roy Barnes recently proposed raising the legal driving age to 17 from 16. It did not matter that the change would affect only a few counties around the Atlanta area, or that the newspapers seem increasingly full of stories about young drivers dying in high-speed crashes. For the rural counties that surround Atlanta's urban island, teenage driving is too fundamental to permit any erosion. The governor's proposal is not quite dead yet, and on Monday, a Senate committee agreed to raise the driving age in five counties around Atlanta. Many legislators, however, predict that the proposal will end his remarkable winning streak with the Georgia Legislature. Over the last three years, he has pushed through changes in education, transportation and even the state flag that few people thought possible. But this issue, more than most, affects the...
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