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)”.
“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). With a number as high as this, lowering the drinking age would only increase this ongoing problem of underage drinking. It has even been proven by the Marin Institute to be the leading cause of death among teenagers. Many adults feel as if the 18 to 21 age groups cannot handle drinking responsibly, then they should not be permitted to use it. Alcohol is a very serious depressant and one of the leading problems for death (Hanson, 2007).
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.
A reduction in juvenile drinking was also noted. The 12 to 16 age group is critical since adolescents in this age group normally experiment with alcohol and drugs. Programs are being implemented to reduce the number of adolescents who start drinking during this stage. M.A.D.D. is also aiming to provide a secure atmosphere for positive growth among the young ones.
Adults may also argue that drinking may cause kids to get in fights and cause trouble. After the drinking age went up, the percentage went from 12% to 17%. All these things are caused from irresponsible drinking. Irresponsible drinking is due to teens drinking without adult
Zach White English-0 Satirical Essay In America there's a lot of problems with kids and under age drinking. A lot of young children die in drunk driving accidents every year, so finding a solution to this problem can save many lives. The reason all this is a problem is because teenagers tend to think there invincible and can drive under the influence but really they have no idea what there getting themselves into. Most kids miss judge the amount of alcohol they've consumed and when they get behind the wheel think there okay but in reality there way over the legal of drinking. I found there's only one solution to this problem.
The number one argument by supporters of the 21-year-old limit is that it reduces alcohol related traffic deaths. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated 16,000 lives have been saved as a result of raising the legal drinking age to 21 (Straszheim). An argument against that statistic by those who don’t believe it is that there may be other reasons for the reductions in traffic fatalities, such as safer roads. Another argument is that young people start drinking long before they turn 21 even with the age limit (Goodale). Although the first fact proves that it has helped our safety on the road, what it doesn’t prove is that even though 16,000 lives have been
An average someone is affect the offender but also other innocent victims around them. Killed by a drunk driver every 40 minutes, in 2007, an estimate of 12,998 people died in drunk driving related cashes- a decline of 3.7 percent from the 13,491 drunk related fatalities in 2006. In 2002, 2.3 percent of Americans 18years and older, surveyed reported alcohol impaired including 50 percent of 18 – 21 year old. Alcohol is never right for an underage, and when an underage as a very high alcohol consumption and get behind the wheels its like hell on the wheel because he control himself not to talk of controlling the wheels and when he can’t do that, he crashes into someone else. One of the biggest and oldest organization that has been against drunk driving is MADD- which stand for mothers against drunk driving.
Teens often believe that if they are able to vote and be sent to war than they should be able to consume alcohol. This is often a huge debate between many people. What most of these teens don't know is that the drinking age at one time was eighteen. However, the government saw problems with teens drinking and they decided to raise the legal drinking age to twenty-one. There are many incentives out there for states whose drinking age is still under twenty-one.