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.
Lowering the drinking age would increase the teen alcohol related car crashes each year. People like to think if you can serve in the war and risk your life you should be old enough to drink. Or since Europeans let their children drink, our American children should be allowed to drink as well. What most people don’t know
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
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.
This sends a conflicting message to the young person, that drinking is permissible at an earlier age than 21. Scientists conclude that early drinking by adolescents increases the lifetime likelihood of alcohol dependence, and that overall drinking levels in a society are directly linked to drinking problems (NIAA p. 2). The peers of an individual can also have a strong influence upon drinking habits. A person is likely to behave according to their friends’ standards in order fit in and be accepted. If peers encourage others to drink alcohol underage, often teens will drink to feel more accepted by their peers.
Alcohol intoxicates the brain, leaving you feeling disoriented and slowing your reflexes. Consuming alcohol harms your brain and can lead to mental retardation. At the age of 21 scientists believe your brain to be fully developed, and therefore is seen as a “safe” age to be able to drink. Why should we choose to lower the drinking age and harm our children’s undeveloped brains? The debate over lowering the drinking age has once again been presented to the nation.
They learn how to control their drinking and what to expect from the effects of the alcohol (Nayak 141-142). This may be true for some parts of the world, but it does not deem overall success in achieving overall healthy drinking habits. It still leads to harm development and early age drinking still has potential to raise the risk of alcohol abuse in adult life. As an example, by Wechsler and Nelson, most European countries have lower drinking ages, this has resulted in a rise of drinking problems among teens and the amount of binge drinking is doubled that of the U.S. When New Zealand lowered their drinking age in 1999, they were definite increases in the number of emergency injury influenced by alcohol, as well as the higher rate of
It can lead to memory loss, and permanent brain damage (Minimum Drinking Age). Some states allow parents to teach their children to drink responsibly before the age of 21, but there’s no evidence that this approach actually works. Although, when teens feel they have their parents’ approval to drink, they do it more and more often when their parents are not around. Many activities have ages of initiation. An average person must wait until age 16 to start driving, age 18 to marry without parental consent, and age 35 to become president (Minton).
Teen drinking is one of the leading causes to deaths and can also cause damages on growth and health for them. The consumption of alcohol in adolescents has a different effect on them then it does for a grown man or woman. Califano proves Reid’s idea that the English and Europeans have fewer drinking problems than we do in the states to be wrong by stating, “British fifteen and sixteen year olds were more than twice as likely as Americans to binge drink (50% vs. 24%) and to have been intoxicated within the past thirty day (48% vs. 21%).” Continuing to support this he uses another statistic by The World Health Organization that found that British boys and girls were far likelier than U.S. equals to have been drunk twice or more by the age fifteen. After discussing how with a lower drinking age teens will drink more often, Califano then goes on to talk about the consequences that teen drinking has on their growth and health issues. One fact he presents is that even a teen drinking at a responsible rate can cause damage in the brain that is long term and irreversible.
The drinking age should be lowered because of many studies showing that to be 21 to drink legally is not helping anything. One main study to support my opinion is the irresponsible manner we drink as underage drinkers and the percentages from now to then when you could be 18 and drink legally. My second issue is how easy it is to get alcohol and you can bust as many people as you can but your never going to stop underage drinking. My other point I like to point out is the history of laws being passed and what has changed now from then in the drinking laws. In this report I?m going to express how drinking is not to be seen as poison or a really bad thing to do if we just handle the way we drink in a more responsible manner.