...olds can now do everything their parents do except legally consume alcohol. If they are caught in public drinking alcohol they will be arrested. 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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...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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...Seminar 9 November 2010 Lowering the Legal Drinking Age Is Not the Solution “In 2005, about 10.8 million persons aged 12 to 20 (28.2 percent of this age group) reported drinking alcohol in the past month. Nearly 7.2 million (18.8 percent) were binge drinkers, and 2.3 million (6.0 percent) were heavy drinkers,” according to the agency, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in the Department of Health and Human Services. To solve this problem, would be to try to avoid it from happening, and that is, keeping the legal drinking age at twenty-one years old. The minimum drinking age has been an argument as to lowering the drinking age to 18. Candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, argues, “Of course, they should be able to drink at age 18, and they should be able to vote at age 16.” Then there are groups that have been formed such as, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who are strongly against lowering the drinking age to 18 and fully support 21 to be the legal drinking age. Lowering the drinking age to 18 resulted in more car accidents, deaths, and harmful effects to the body at such a younger age. Having the legal drinking age at 21 is for everyone’s own safety and health, also less under age kids will and have the ability to drink. In the 1970’s the drinking age was 18 years old because it was thought if you could fight in the Vietnam War you should be able to drink. However, having the legal drinking age at 18 lead to an outrageous...
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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 drinking age has been a topic of debate ever since an age was established. Many years ago, government said that 21 years old would be the minimum age for drinking. This was fine for a while but later became an issue. People started to think of all the things one can do as an 18 year old, yet still not able to drink a beer. At 18 years old one is considered an adult. They become eligible to serve in the military and yield weapons. Also at 18, one can go out to the store and buy a pack of cigarettes. So why can they still not have a beer. This is where controversy has begun. People believe the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Already in some states it is legal for someone to drink at 18, under some circumstances, but why is it not nationwide?...
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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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...Arguing Paper 1,542 Words Lowering the drinking age: If 18 equals adulthood, then what is 21? Imagine a world where an eighteen year old cannot get a ticket for simply having a beer in their hand. A world where young people can consume alcohol without worries of getting caught. The place I am describing should be the United States, but unfortunately many nations have lower drinking ages than we do. As a result, they have significantly fewer problems with underage drinking. Seems like reverse psychology, and that is because it is. Young people in America view alcohol as the “Forbidden Fruit”, the taboo of what is suppose to be their adult eighteen-year-old lives. If eighteen is considered adult, then why are they not allowed to purchase alcohol? In Europe most countries have lower drinking ages. Alcohol is a completely normal thing for a young person to be around. Think of two adolescent children, one child is told not to touch the cookie jar before eating dinner and the other has absolutely no restrictions on the jar. The child with rules tends to get in trouble for sneaking a cookie because he or she cannot have it. The child with no limitations tends to leave the cookie jar alone because cookies are available to him or her at anytime. Alcohol is the norm for young people in several countries, but our country’s teens are like the first child who was banned from the cookie jar, they drink alcohol mostly because they are not allowed to. Our nation has attempted...
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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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...unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection, violence, vandalism, crime, overdose, other substance abuse, and high risk behavior, resulting on a heavy burden of social and health costs. Drinking alcohol most commonly begins during adolescences and early initiation of alcohol use is associated with alcohol problems in adulthood. Underage drinkers drink on few occasions, but when they drink they are more likely to binge drink. In recognition of the harms caused by underage drinking the US surgeon General issued a Call to Action in 2007 to prevent and reduce drinking among youths. The minimum legal drinking age has been perhaps the most single most studied alcohol-control policy. Differences in laws among states and within states over time have allowed researchers to study the effect of this policy and come to some reliable conclusions. A review of 241 studies published between 1960 and 2000 that examined the effects of lowering and raising minimum drinking age laws identified 135 high-quality studies in terms of sampling, research design, and having an appropriate comparison group.[12 ] Of the 79 quality studies that examined the relationship between the minimum legal drinking age and traffic crashes, 58% found fewer crashes associated with a higher minimum legal drinking age, whereas no study found fewer crashes associated...
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...Essay 2 Rough Draft Writing 123 Enthymeme: The minimum legal drinking age in the United States should not be lowered from 21 to 18 because the legal drinking age is in place to protect young people at a time when irresponsible behavior is prevalent. The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Debate Since 2008, 136 college chancellors and presidents have signed the Amethyst Initiative, asking that the United States reconsider the minimum legal drinking age-21 (MLDA-21) laws that have been in place in all 50 states since 1984. The Amethyst Initiative argues that the MLDA-21 laws simply do not work, create a culture of binge-drinking, and that a policy of legalization and education would be more effective in protecting the safety of American adolescents. Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, the president of Sweet Briar College in Virginia and Amethyst Initiative signatory writes that 70 percent of the student population is underage. Teaching abstinence to students that blatantly ignore the MLDA-21 laws, or urging responsible behavior while drinking underage and breaking the law, are both hypocritical positions for the college administration to be in (Muhlenfeld 2). The Amethyst Initiative position is that current MLDA-21 laws have created a culture of heavy alcohol use by making drinking clandestine and extreme (Saylor 1). The statistics seem to back up this claim. Recent survey's of the 18-20 year old population by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that a full 72 percent report...
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...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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...Alcohol at 18: Perhaps The debate whether or not the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) in the United States is lowered to 18 years of age has come up plenty of times in the past. Some people may argue that lowering the drinking age would destroy our country. How come it hasn’t destroyed Canada or England? Some people believe that lowering the drinking age should not be that big of an issue, and that the problem lies on the fabrics of the population. Some even argue that lowering the drinking age will solve many issues we face today, and that underage drinking, alcoholism, and drug abuse would decrease. “Since 1984, we have had, in effect, a national drinking age of 21. The law imposes prohibition --we must call this what it is--on everyone under the age of 21, including those age 18-20 who are, in the eyes of the law, in all other respects, adults” (McCardell, 2010). Why would our country go into despair if the MLDA is lowered? Many factors point to the facts that underage drinking is a big problem in our age. “In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, largely independent efforts to raise state MLDAs resulted in differing state minimum drinking ages across the United States. This patchwork of drinking ages encouraged underage individuals in states with higher MLDAs to drive across state borders to drink or purchase alcohol in neighboring states that had lower MLDAs, probably contributing to higher rates of traffic crashes among youth aged 18–20” (Toomey, Traci L., Toben F. Nelson...
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...not the minimum legal drinking age should be twenty one or eighteen. In the year of 1980 a law was passed that changed the minimum legal drinking age from eighteen to twenty one in order to decrease the amount of car crashes and fatalities and to keep alcohol out of the hands of an "irresponsible" age group (Ruth Streeter). Since the raising of the drinking age, more harm has been done than good and the drinking age should be lowered back down to eighteen, given some restrictions and changes. While each state was given the option of whether or not to support this act, the government threatened to cut highway funds if the states kept their drinking age to eighteen. It is strange that an eighteen to twenty year old can vote for our Nation's leader, risk their life fighting for our freedom, and be viewed as an adult, yet still cannot sit down and have a few drinks. At the age of eighteen one is considered an adult. This title of "adult" basically gives people the opportunity to make life changing decisions like voting, buying tobacco products, getting married, signing contracts, serving on juries, having abortions, and being drafted into or joining the military. Scientists claim that the pre-frontal cortex of the brain in which controls judgment is not fully developed until the mid twenties, which then leads to people against lowering the drinking age to claim that opportunities new "adults" take on are not necessarily needing full judgment like unsafe drinking would. So voting...
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...Lower the Legal Drinking Age BCOM/275 Lower the Legal Drinking Age Drinking has become a rite of passage. Many young people count the days to their 21st birthday because they finally can drink legally. This journey into adulthood causes confusion considering other milestones are reached at 18. Upon reaching maturity, young people can vote, serve in the military, and marry without consent. If an 18-year-old can make such significant, life-changing decisions, he or she should have the right lawfully to consume alcohol. In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which necessitated that states increase the public possession and buying age of alcohol to 21 or federal funding for highways was reduced. Each state complied to receive its annual allotment. Prior to 1984, the legal drinking age varied for each state. According to the article, “The Top Five Reasons We Should Keep The Drinking Age At 21,” our lives and futures of our children rely on continued support of not lowering the national drinking age. There are valid arguments throughout the article and after researching the data online most of the information is accurate. However, the author did not list any references, which makes the article lose credibility. There are no logical fallacies but without citations, the piece seems like one person’s opinion and not a reliable source. The futures of our children depend on parents and their ability to teach their children to...
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...Today, the consumption of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21 is generally illegal across the United States; however, there are some states that have exceptions allowing underage consumption of alcohol in certain circumstances. Underage drinking is allowed if done on private premises with parental consent or for religious purposes. In Ruth Engs’ opinion, based upon her research, “as a nation we have tried prohibition legislation twice in the past for controlling irresponsible drinking problems. This was during National Prohibition in the 1920’s and State Prohibition during the 1850’s. These laws were finally repealed because they were unenforceable and because the backlash towards them caused other social problems. Today we are repeating history and making the same mistakes that occurred in the past. Prohibition did not work then and prohibition for young people under the age of 21 is not working now” (Engs). On many campuses around the country, led by the so-called Amethyst Initiative, the legal drinking age continues to be a controversial issue since it is believed that “twenty-one is not working” (Sanghavi). The old familiar argument is that turning 18 bestows the rights and responsibilities of adulthood such as voting, serving on juries, getting married, signing contracts, joining the military, buying cigarettes, watching porn and upon prosecution, trial as an adult. If adults from the age of 18 are trusted to do all of these things, they should also be trusted...
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