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Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

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“In America, eighteen-year-olds can vote, operate a motor vehicle, pay taxes, marry, become a legal guardian, own a gun, fight and die in a foreign country….”(Fulton). An argument can be made that those responsibilities outweigh the responsibility of consuming alcohol .After prohibition ended in America, states were allowed to choose their own drinking age. In the 1970’s, 30 states lowered their drinking age to tie into the 26th amendment lowering of the voting age to 18. In 1984 US congress decided they would put a ten percent cut to infrastructure funding to states who did not adopt a 21 year old drinking age. Many countries around the world have a legal drinking age or 18 years old and sometimes even younger. There are only three other countries that have a drinking age of 21 years old and those countries are Mongolia, Indonesia, and Palau. After prohibition ended in America states were allowed to choose their own drinking age. Many states decided to match the drinking age with the national voting age, which is 18. The United States Of America is pledged with underage drinking problems and DUIs. Lowering the legal drinking age can help limit those problems and even save lives. Having a drinking age of 18 years old will lower DUI and drinking related charges, reduce binge drinking, and save lives . The primary statistic that stands out when comparing America to countries with a lower drinking age is the rate of drinking related crimes. Alcohol inhibits a person from

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