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
David Amalfitano Dr. Corso English 101-L 18 November 2008 The Law is the Law The drinking age has been a controversial subject and as serious as it is, this issue should not be taken lightly. Whether to keep the age of 21 or lower the drinking age to 18 has been debated over the years; the age now to legally drink is 21 and has been for 40 years and should not be changed. Keeping the drinking age at 21 will solve those problems dealing with the consequences that come from underage drinking. For almost 40 years, most states have set their minimum drinking age law at 21. Hanson presents that at the height of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, 29 states began lowering their drinking age to more closely align with
Kimberley Fudge Revision of my Dui Paper Professor Davenport English 215 June 4, 2013 Could you live with being responsible for a death? Drunk driving is defined as operating a motor vehicle (car, bus, truck, moped etc) after consuming alcohol. In 2003 42, 643 fatalities were caused by vehicle crashes, out of those 17,013 (40%) were alcohol related. A crash is considered alcohol related if any driver, pedestrian or passenger involved has any trace of alcohol or there is a suspicion of alcohol usage. Unfortunately intoxicated victims of crashes sustain worse injuries and are more likely to be seriously injured than the sober victims according to a study by the University of Michigan.
The drinking age should not be lowered to 18. Lowering the drinking age from 21 years old to 18 years old could lead to an increase in dangerous behavior such as drunken driving and car accidents, risk of developing alcoholism and people under the age of 21 do not fully understand the dangers of alcohol. A teenage driver and alcohol is a dangerous combination. Drinking and driving accidents are the number one cause of death among teenagers. “Traffic deaths from drunken driving have fallen steadily, with those involving teenagers 16 to 19 declining by 39.1 percent from 1982 to 1990, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)”.
“Speakeasies of the Prohibition Era” an article by Kathy Weiser explains how all speakeasies and anything else to do with illegal alcohol actions led to the unhealthy era of America. Connected with poverty, crime, corruption, social problems and tax burdens drinking was said to be the source of all evil (Weiser). Why America kept this Amendment in for thirteen years no one still knows because it did not make us a healthier place to live as a
The argument is a big decision for whether it should be raised or shouldn't it be raised because of the consequences of both sides. There are many reasons why the legal driving age shouldn’t be raised, including: more deaths/accidents would occur in the 18-year-old range, parents wouldn’t be able to have as much control of their teen driver, and parents would have to drive their kids around all the time. Making the legal driving age be 18 instead of 16 would have harsh consequences. First, if the driving age were raised
Should the Legal Drinking Age be Lowered? Alcohol has taken the lives of many young adults and in order to stop this chain reaction from occurring once again with new generations there needs to be a change. Young adults under 21 drink now because it is illegal and it is what causes them to drink irresponsibly and causes them to do many regrettable things, knowing that they are going against authority. On college campuses nationwide students are currently drinking illegally while under the age of 21 and if the drinking age was changed the whole aspect of drinking would be looked at differently. 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.
De Soto list several fatal and non-fatal accidents cases from New York to Washington State from texting while driving. De Soto states this is one the most dangerous epidemics on today’s highway, more dangerous than drunk driving. De Soto states that of the 21 states in America that have passed laws on texting while driving, only Alaska and Utah have fines that match the same fines as drunk driving. Most texting while driving laws are “lax” on penalties. De Soto states that the penalties for texting while driving should bring significant monetary fines, points on offenders record and loss of driving privileges like that of drunk driving laws.
Marijuana use in general has a higher risk of car accidents, losing jobs and not being on time for work. Research has shown that marijuana use has had long negative effects on the brain. Heavy marijuana users at a young age tend to lose as much as
First Topic #15: Should DUI (driving under the influence) Laws be Changed? My first choice from the topic list concerns DUI laws. The main reason behind this selection is that drunk driving is a serious issue in our young society today. Almost daily the news reports a drunk driver incident, and more and more these are caused by underage drinkers. Sadly is not just at night danger anymore.