Drinking Laws Essay

McCardell suggests it is time to rethink the drinking age in the United States (McCardell, 2012). First of all, why are eighteen year olds considered minors only when it comes to drinking? After all, they are legally permitted to drive, get married, smoke cigarettes, and even to join the army. If they can make the choice to do these things, are they not capable of making the choice to drink?

Every year, thousands of minors die from the use of alcohol. Many young adults abuse the drinking age policy. It is put in effect for substantial reasons, which contribute in making the safest environment for all. Drinking underage is not only illegal, but also damages one’s health tremendously. Furthermore, drinking in large amounts is extremely dangerous and can cause detrimental things to occur. There have been numerous attempts to create a law to lower the drinking age, but none have gone through. In contrast to what some people may say, the drinking age should not be lowered because it would decrease maturity, promote poor behavior, and damage reputations.

When I was young I was told 18 would be the age when I would become an adult. When I turned 18 I could get a tattoo or piercing without permission, I could buy cigarettes, and I did not need permission for most everything. Most everything except drinking alcohol. In the United States the drinking age is 21 years old, 4 years after a teenager legally turns into an adult.

In 1984 Ronald Reagan proposed a new law that declared that the legal drinking age must raised up to 21 instead of the age of 18. The law was forced upon the states by threatening them by stating that the government will reduce their highway funding until the states passed the law. Of course all the states eventually change their legal drinking age to 21. Some critics believe that this law’s results have been very successful, however the law possesses many insecurities, but certain programs can be arranged to help educate teenagers on alcohol.

Getting to 18 years of age is an important milestone for a US resident because it is the legal age for independence, allowing the individual to make his or her decisions regarding tobacco smoking, driving and even joining the armed forces while being treated as an adult by the justice system. While this statement is essentially accurate, it is untrue concerning the ability to purchase and drink alcohol. This is because the US law has set the threshold for alcohol purchase and consumption at 21 years of age (Mistral 1980). The question then remains; if an individual is considered an adult at 18 years of age, is it not right to allow them to purchase and consume alcohol at the same age? Answering this question has been a matter of polarizing debate, with those in support of and opposition to lowering the drinking age presenting valid arguments. The present paper discusses the same argument with a subjective bias towards supporting calls for the US legislators to lower the legal drinking age to 18 years.

At the age of 18, American Citizens gain the immense responsibility of becoming an adult. When you turn 18 you gain a sense of adulthood and many things that were illegal for you before are now legal. Object lessons are the right to sign a contract, vote in elections, attend on a jury, make a will, get married without parental permission and the list goes on. For what reason is it that you aren 't old enough to purchase and consume alcohol. "The passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to enhance their legal age for purchase or public ownership of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds (alcohol policy. Noah. NIH. Gov)."

Society’s attitude towards the drinking age has been a major controversy in the United States. The attitudes regarding the drinking age have been based off statistics and society’s varying opinion. Alcohol is a toxic depressant that has a damaging effect on the human body. As a result, to prevent excessive alcoholic consumption, the ratification of the 18th amendment took place from 1919 to 1939. This established the Prohibition Act, which banned the transportation, manufacturing and selling of an alcoholic beverage. However, illegal production of alcohol continued to take place in secret. Gradually prohibition laws became difficult to enforce. As a result, the Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933. In 1984, congress mandated a law which would raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 through the National Minimum Drinking Age. Reasoning for mandating an older drinking age, was to enhance public safety and promote good health. In 1988, all 50 states enforced the drinking age to 21. The concern for the consumption of alcohol have targeted teenagers and young adults

A highly controversial topic that continues to rise is the debate of the legal drinking age and whether it should lower from twenty-one, or remain. On July 17, 1984, Ronald Reagan was in office when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed, prohibiting anyone under the age of twenty-one from publicly possessing and purchasing alcohol. After the Act was passed in 1984, the states that failed to abide by Ronald Reagan’s National Minimum Drinking Age Act were withheld from federal highway construction funds. By creating this punishment, states were almost forced to comply with the new legal addition. Every state adopted the new law by the year of 1988 (Underage Drinking). The act itself did take away the majority of drinking privileges, but did not take away the entirety of them. Omissions within the National Minimum Drinking Age Act included consumption for: religious purposes, educational functions, guardian consent, and employment. Some states are stricter on alcohol consumption for minors, while some allow the exceptions within the act. With this new controversial issue put into effect across the entire United States, the population immediately took sides. Although many individuals believe once someone becomes eighteen, and is officially an adult, they should hold the right and responsibility to drink as they please, evidence reveals early alcohol consumption correlates with detrimental health

The drinking age in the United States is a contradiction. At the age of eighteen, one can drive a car, vote in an election, get married, serve in the military and buy tobacco products. In the United States you are legally an adult at eighteen. An eighteen-year-old, however, cannot purchase alcoholic beverages. The minimum drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one in the United States.

One of the most controversial problems within the United States is the policy of the national minimum drinking age of 21. I believe that the raising of the drinking age to 21 years old has created more problems than solving them. America has had past experiences with a similar situation when they enforced prohibition. As we know, prohibition was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, which was a huge failure. America have tried prohibition legislation twice in the past for controlling irresponsible drinking problems. The first National Prohibition was during the 1920’s, and the state prohibition was in the 1850’s. These two laws were decisively repealed because they

The legal age of adulthood in the United States for most purposes is 18. At the age of 18, a person enters the realm of adulthood and is assigned the rights and responsibilities associated with this legal status. For example, an 18 year old can legally sign a contract and is bound by the terms and conditions of the contract. An 18 year old can marry without parental consent, serve on a jury, and vote in state and federal elections. An 18 year old who is charged with a crime is not tried in the juvenile justice system but is tried as an adult. Additionally, an 18 year old can join the military and be sent to a combat zone to defend our country. One notable exception to the rights of adulthood is the right to legally consume alcohol until the age of 21. I will present a cogent argument to lower the legal drinking age in the United States from 21 to 18. The elements of the argument will be based in utilitarian ethics. Jeremy Bentham, a utilitarian theorist, advocated that one’s individual rights should outweigh the interests of institutions, which include the government.

When you become an adult you can vote, join the military, jury duty, sign contracts, marry, apply for loans, make decisions regarding medical treatments, and be prosecuted as an adult (“Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 to a Younger Age?”). Adults have the right to make their own decisions, and there are many arguments on why 18-year-olds should be able to consume alcohol legally. In other countries like Europe with an MLDA of 18, there are fewer drunk driving traffic accidents and fatalities than an MLDA of 21 in America (“Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 to a Younger Age?”). Many argue that the government and the police should worry more about every legal person’s alcohol consumption instead of just underaged

Is it right to grant eighteen-year-olds all of these privileges and responsibilities, and to restrict them from drinking alcohol? If eighteen-year-olds don't have the discretion to drink responsibly, then how could they possibly handle the responsibilities and privileges that adults have? I believe that eighteen-year-olds do have the ability to handle the freedoms and responsibilities of being an adult, which should include the privilege to drink alcohol.

In the United States, the minimum age required to legally consume alcohol is twenty-one years, being allowed in some states for young people under the minimum drinking age to consume alcohol under specific controlled circumstances. This particular age is controversial as it does not correspond to the age of majority of 18 years embraced by 47 states, which entitles the individual to vote, get married and join the army, among other decisions inherent to adulthood. It is thus seen as contradictory to consider a young person mature enough to take decisions of this nature, but not mature enough to drink alcohol.

College life is filled with changes. It is filled with many new experiences. As college students, we are on our own, adults. As adults we are responsible for keeping up to date on information that affects us. One issue that affects college students nation wide is drinking. The current legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one years of age. The Federal government raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1984. Even with the current drinking age at twenty-one, many people under that age choose to drink anyway. In fact, a government survey from 1996 showed that 56% of high school seniors reported drinking in the last 30 days (Hanson). With so many underage drinkers, many people