Lowering the drinking age, I feel would be the best solution to solving the underground drinking problem, it would allow for drinking to be more “open.” Having the drinking age at 21 allows for there to me more difficulty in keeping track of the kids who use it because they do it secretly and tend to abuse it more. If the drinking age was lowered across the world, I think there would less binge drinking amongst the teens and would allow for the elders to have more control over the consumption of alcohol. Drinking at any age under 18 should not be allowed but once you turn 18 you should be allowed to drink legally. When one turns 18 they assume adult penalties, are allowed to vote, die for their country, and even get married. So why can’t they enjoy a few beers legally?
The majority of the people voting for the age limit to drop to 18 are the people who are under 18 or who are 18. They feel that 18 year-olds are prepared to make responsible decisions about drinking (Amethyst Initiative). The Amethyst Initiative believes that lowering the drinking age will only make situations worse for society. But the fact is, these people are not thinking about the consequences and are only looking at the pleasure. “More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year—about 4.65 a day—as a result of alcohol-related injuries” (The Marin Institute).
Teenage Drinking Raising the drinking age to 25 years old will prevent teenage drinking. “The strongest evidence for reducing alcohol-related harm is by increasing the price and reducing the availability”(Raising legal). Alcohol is a dangerous drug that causes accidents and deaths every year. Every year there are records of driving while intoxicated for under age drinkers. So raising the age of which you can consume alcohol will result in less accidents and deaths caused by drinking.
It’s a proven success. Nearly every state that has raised the drinking age to 21 has produced a significant drop in the teenage driving fatalities” (Nayaka 193). There has been further evidence that portrays that law since been effective has caused those under the age of 21 to drink less in their youth and less later in their 20’s. Lowering the age also declined the access to of alcohol to minors, thus also not allowing for them to participate in underage drinking (Roleff 86). These laws were in place in order to maintain the protection of the youth and such evidence has shown that these laws are holding true to their original
In the 1960’s and 1970’s when many states had lowered the MLDA, besides the rise in drunk-driving deaths, studies showed that people raised from childhood in under-21 states were involved in higher rates of alcohol and drug use as adults, and had a higher rate of homicides and suicides. (Moses, 2011) This in turn convinced federal law makers to raise the MLDA again to 21. However, in order to encourage states to comply, the federal government would tighten their purse strings and states would receive little or no funding towards highways. So while there are those who do not necessarily care one way or the other about the actual age limit on alcohol consumption, they do prefer having the federal
Pros and Cons of Lowering Legal Drinking Age The United States minimum drinking age has been twenty one since the mid 1930’s. During the Vietnam era soldiers were granted rights to drink in uniform, but varied between each states while some limiting which beverages could be bought. As a result car fatalities had a significant increase in young teen drivers that were related to alcohol. Much of this was from driving to other states due to different laws. For example teens in Illinois would drive to Wisconsin simply because you could purchase alcohol at 18, but not in Illinois.
The drinking age isn't meant to be a big deal, but the first couple years of lowering the drinking age could cause many students to be reckless. There are many responsibilities that come along with drinking at a low age, most importantly drinking and driving. Lowering the age will reduce all such problems, but at first will seem extremely hectic. Lowering the current drinking age of 21-and-over will allow young Americans, most of who are perfectly capable of drinking responsibly; to no longer drink in private or in short amounts of time, thus alleviating potentially dangerous conditions. Drinking privately is extremely unsafe and when kids are in a situation they can't handle, they can then ask for help.
10-08-12 The Alcohol Drinking Age Should the alcoholic drinking age stay at age 21? In the United States “The federal legislation passed in 1984 required all states to set the legal age for the purchase and public consumption of alcohol at 21 years” (Drinking). Many people believed that it is safer to keep it at age 21, because for safety of the teenagers and the community. However, the regulation for alcohol drinking age should be changed to age18; because 18 years old consider like adult. In matter of fact, many teenagers in the United States weather or without their family consent they consume a lot of alcohol.
I believe that we should focus on safe drinking more than age restrictions. We need to educate teenagers about safe drinking. Lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 with providing proper education will decrease illegal and binge alcohol drinking on teens. I agree that something has to be done with the problem of alcohol abuse in this country, but why not start from the bottom and steadily increase as we teach teenagers how to drink responsibly? Then we need to learn to trust them.
Toulmin Analysis of “Don’t Make Teen Drinking Easier” T.R. Reid argued in his article “Let my Teenager Drink” that the United States should lower the drinking age in order to show them how to drink responsibly. In “Don’t Make Teen Drinking Easier” Joseph Califano writes against this article giving sufficient reasons as to why lowering the drinking age can be dangerous. Califano discusses research that proves that American fifteen year olds were less likely than those of other nations with a lower drinking age to actually be intoxicated two or more times. Teen drinking is one of the leading causes to deaths and can also cause damages on growth and health for them.