Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

It’s no doubt that alcohol has a major sway on today’s society across the board both culturally and globally. When we take a look into past history, we can see how alcohol has been the fundamental measures to religious, professional, and social concerns. It seems that no matter how far our history books go back, the United States has had a question about the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Through the years of Prohibition halting the sale, shipping, and ingestion of alcohol and the constitutional acts delegating who is accurately fit to drink. Today’s controversy is a lot less infringing on personal rights. It’s regarding whether the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. This has been a huge controversy geared exclusively towards college students due to the fact that alcohol consumption at universities is the definitive part of campus life even though the greater part of students are not legally permitted to drink. It is apparent that through the regularity and risks of binge drinking across universities and the high percentage of DUI and alcohol related fatal crashes, that something needs to shift in this country. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen would be an expedient and positive step in reducing binge drinking, nurturing the safe practice of drinking alcohol, and permitting those students of legal drinking age the chance to fully and sensibly make mature adult choices.

The push to engage people in the debate concerning the lowering of the drinking age has even been noted recently on such cable news networks as CNN. CNN reported that "the presidents of about 100 colleges and universities say current alcohol laws may actually encourage binge drinking on campuses" ("Should U.S. Lower Drinking Age?"). It seems the only opposition, according to CNN, comes from

Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make a lot of sense in the world. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make more sense. It would be better for the teens that drink on college campus. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because you can vote at eighteen, buy tobacco, it’ll reduce the thrill of breaking the law, evidence supports that early introduction of drinking is the safest way to reduce juvenile alcohol abuse, and college people that are not 21 drink also.

This discussion has been going on for long on many forums without a decisive conclusion or agreement. This is mainly because both the arguments for lowering the age to 18 years and not lowering have some substantial facts to support them. The people who are against lowering the drinking age come up with a number of arguments which are explained below.

One of the largest questions still up for debate is whether to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. We know that this issue is very mundane to you if you’re from the 70’s and 80’s. We can also recall learning about prohibition in the 1920s. Banning alcohol wasn’t the answer then and it isn’t the answer now. It is time America has lowered the drinking age. The push for this started by the founder of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the increasing awareness of the harms associated with alcohol use among young adults. The United States is one of the only western nations left in which the drinking age is over 18. In most European cultures, drinking is perceived as a social activity. Therefore youths drink as

Concluding that someone who can give their life up for their country and marry someone ,but not even drink a glass of champagne at their own wedding because according to the law they are not “mature” enough seems to be contradictory. Lowering the drinking age would not only present an increase economically from more alcohol purchased ,but it would also diminish the outcome of punishment for a legal

On July 1, 1971 the 26th amendment was passed which lowered the minimum age to vote from twenty one to eighteen years old. Shortly after the amendment was passed twenty nine states across America started lowering the drinking age from 21 to either 18,19, or 20 years old. This new freedom for young adults only lasted for a brief time by 1984 the Uniform Drinking Age Act was passed. The Uniform Drinking Age Act forced states to change the drinking age back to twenty one years old; by reducing the federal transportation funding, for each state that did not have a minimum drinking age of21. This act has caused controversy for years, there even is group of 136 college presidents called Amethyst Initiative that support a lower minimum legal

Underage drinking is a very eminent problem for Americans today. Some may not know that the human brain continues to develop until the age of twenty-five. Underage drinking can weaken neurological development, which could cause minors to make bad decisions, have memory loss, slower thought processes, and even acquire irreversible brain damage. Drinking when your body and mind are not fully developed can leave damaging effects on a person’s social abilities, neurological abilities, and overall health.

Lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen is a good idea because it will most likely promote responsibility, alcohol consumption will be more controlled, and, if not done so, it is posing as discrimination against the eighteen to twenty age group; however, lowering the legal drinking age back to eighteen can be fatal because the brains of the eighteen to twenty year old age groups are not fully developed, binge drinking and alcohol addiction rates will go up, and the drinking and driving rates will increase.

“Before the minimum drinking age law, 16- to 20-years olds were the most common drunken drivers” (Griggs). Teens should be worried about going to college rather than going to parties and getting drunk and not going to class the next day because they have a hangover. Lowering the drinking age down by three years is three more years they could be learning how to become responsible. The drinking age should be kept at age 21 because it would create a safer environment for everyone and everyone around them.

Risking one’s life to serve this country, having the responsibility to vote for this country’s next leader, having the freedom to gamble one’s savings away: these liberties become reality for every young adult at the age of eighteen. Why, then, is it that the government wants to hold on to the ability for eighteen year olds to drink alcohol? Since 1984 the U.S. law has held the drinking age at twenty-one years of age. Some people hold that the drinking age should remain the same, while others fight for change. The U.S. government should lower the age for drinking to 18 because all other rights are given to Americans by then, it would cause less underage drinking, and it would be economically beneficial.

Without a doubt, the United States has been facing serious national problems with underage drinking. Depending on personal ideologies, some people might not agree that the current minimum drinking age of twenty-one is based on scientific facts rather then ideology of prohibitionism. For example, since 1975 over seventeen thousand lives have been saved since the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was changed to age twenty-one (Balkin 167). This shows that even over a short amount of time, a higher MLDA helps decrease the risk of teen suicides, accidents and overdose deaths. However, this widely debated topic has inevitably brought attention to the plethora of supporting and opposing viewpoints. The minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one

The most common argument includes the fact that 18 year olds or those close to or slightly above this age use alcohol anyway despite restrictions. They asserts that if allowed to drink, young people, as a result, be less secretive, less rebellious and more responsible. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention studies disclosed that a considerable number of underage people use alcohol and some do it excessively. In that regard, proponents for lowering drinking age believe that by lowering the minimal legal drinking age to 18 years, most of these young adults would not need to secretively drink and binge while drinking. By allowing them to drink safely in bars and restaurants, their behaviors and the amount they consume would be easily regulated (The Legal Drinking Age,

Everyone hears about tragedies because of drunk drivers or the stories of the people who grew up with alcoholic parents or the choices people who drink extensively make that hurt and affect so many others. My mother grew up with two alcoholic parents. They could be mean drunks. There are the different kinds of drunks everyone knows: mean drunks, funny drunks, loud drunks, clumsy drunks, emotional drunks, etc. What a lot of people don't realize is that, all drunks and alcoholics have a few things in common. They all forget it in the morning, always have a drink, always deny their problem, frequently can't/don't accept help unless they want to change. There is no talking to an alcoholic.

The controversy on the proper drinking age is one that has been repeatedly discussed and researched over the years. Its common to hear the argument “If someone is old enough to take a bullet for their country, they should be allowed to drink alcohol.” But is that enough justification? Some would say no. “According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) it is estimated that in 2004 there were more than 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 696,000 assaults annually associated with excessive drinking” (Fennell 247). Given these numbers, would lowering the drinking age really be the best thing for America’s youth?