Argumentative Essay On Lower The Legal Drinking Age

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Lorianne Berbano November 28, 2011 Rogerian Essay Eng100, Emma White Lower The Legal Drinking Age At the age of 18, you are already considered as an adult, so why do you have to be 21 to purchase or consume alcohol? There has been multiple debates over the years whether or not the age of 18 should be the appropriate legal drinking age than the age of 21 here in the United States. There are numerous theories as to why 18 should be the legal drinking age. As an adult you can do whatever you want and have your freedom of rights. The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 because most teens under 21 drink anyways. When you turn 18, you get tons of privileges, you are already considered as an adult. Which is worse for an 18 year old?…show more content…
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). The age limit for alcohol is based on research which shows that young people react differently to alcohol. This means that typically anyone is able to acknowledge to lower the drinking age. In Rober Voas' article "There's no benefit to lowering the drinking age, " he states that lowering the age for drinking alcohol would just make matters worse, along with a paragraph that states: "I keep hearing the same refrains: 'If you're old enough to go to war, you should be old enough to drink,' or 'the drinking-age law just increases the desire for the forbidden fruit,' or 'lower crash rates are due to tougher enforcement, not the 21 law,' or "Europeans let their kids drink, so they learn how to be more responsible,' or finally, 'I did it when I was a kid, and I'm OK.'"…show more content…
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. John M. McCardell is the president of Middlebury College, he proposes giving “drinking licenses” to 18-20 year olds, who complete an alcohol education program. This would allow parents and educators to become role models for responsible drinking and to educate young people about the effects of alcohol. I agree with McCardell because if young adults violated a drinking law in any ways, they could be deprived of their license

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