Pros and Cons of Lowering the Drinking Age In today’s society, many young adults turn to alcohol to self-treat depression, stress, and other psychological illnesses. The legal drinking age in the United States of America is twenty-one. It has been that way since the late 1980s, but recently several states have been petitioning and campaigning to get that age lowered. The majority of the petitioners compare the drinking age to the age at which you are considered an adult, eighteen. For most of the people and organizations that support lowering the drinking age, their case is a person can fight and die for their country, serve jury duty , vote for President, but cannot have a beer or two while doing so.
There has been much talk about changing the legal drinking age to 18 instead of 21. some people believe that the age should never of changed from 18 to 21. The drinking age is regulated by the states not the nation and yet all of the nation has a drinking age of 21 and not 18. The drinking age should stay the same and not changed. Legal drinking age should be 21 because at 18 people do not have the maturity to handle alcohol, the health issues with drinking at 18 are greater, and the chances of becoming a alcoholic is greater when a person starts drinking younger. The first reason that the drinking age should be 21 is that at 18 a greater amount of people do not have the maturity to handle and consume alcohol.
As stated in the textbook, Sociology Now, “Around thirty-one percent of college students qualify for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and over six percent of students for a diagnosis of alcohol dependency”. Many of the problems with alcohol abuse on college campuses in America is due to the institution of binge drinking at parties as well as “kick-backs”. Kick-backs are a smaller and more toned down party, that usuallyjust consists of close friends. Binge drinking is the consumption of large amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time; it is defined as consuming five or more drinks in a row for males and four or more drinks for females (Kimmel). Due to this widespread phenomenon of binge drinking, American college students spend an average of over 5.5 billion dollars a year on alcohol.
Normally one does not reach the legal drinking age during college until about their junior or senior year. Yet, through personal experience and research have shown that more drinking is done in the first years of college. A lot of excess baggage comes with the first year in college, and many students are overwhelmed by and under prepared for the excitement and risks that they will encounter during their first year at a university. From classes to sex, from relationships to drinking, from religion to social clubs, students decide the order in which to try them. Many will notice that there are only laws governing one of these activities, thus drinking becomes the first social pastime in which students engage.
Whether the legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen or remain at twenty one is a big issue right now to lots of people. The younger crowd will most likely argue that it should be lowered to eighteen, but they have many legit reasons why it should be. The legal drinking age should be lowered because it is already easily accessible to them, the percentage of reckless teen alcohol abusers will be reduced and also because at the age of eighteen you are legally considered an adult. Almost all teens between the ages of 14-17 have tried alcohol before. Majority of the time it is given to them by someone between the ages of 18-21.
Leana Berube College Composition Persuasive Essay There is no doubt that underage drinking has been a huge problem in the United States since the ban of prohibition was lifted. There is something about how alcohol is illegal that gives underage drinkers a thrill. Every year around this time, millions of American kids graduate from high school, throw massive parties and get drunk. Police end up arresting a lot of these kids, causing them legal trouble for months or even years. So, every year around this time, there's a new debate about whether the drinking age should lower or even abolish.
Underage Drinking is Harmful Alcohol is a substance that is very dangerous and if used incorrectly or immaturely, the consequences can harm the users and the ones around them extremely. People have been debating the drinking age for years now, whether it should be lowered to 18 or kept at 21. In 1970, 29 states lowered their drinking age, and things were catastrophic; needless to say, they all raised the drinking age by 1976. Alcohol is a drug; in fact, it is the most widely used drug in the world. People abuse alcohol all the time, especially teens.
Every year in the United States, countless college students acquire underage drinking citations and are eventually charged with underage drinking. These charges are a black spot on the permanent record of said students and greatly affect their ability to get a job after they graduate. The fact that the number of students charged with underage drinking do not change from year to year clearly indicates that students who are not of legal age are going to continue to consume alcohol regardless of the law. That being said, why haven’t we considered lowering the drinking age to eighteen? I believe that this reason and many other reasons should steer us as a country to consider finally lowering the legal age of consumption of alcohol.
Unlike other countries, the United States is very strict on the drinking age. Instead of the age 18, where we are legally an adult, the drinking age is 21.The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because being 18 is when you are a legal adult and should be able to do everything a legal adult does, including drinking. Binge drinking has become a major problem in youths in the United States. Youths under twenty-one drink profoundly when they can get their hands on alcohol. The ecstasy of breaking the law and being rebellious also influences their drinking and this has
Unfortunately, many of these underage drinkers often abuse alcohol (Chikritzhs, Jonas, Stockwell, Heale, & Dietze, 2001). Binge drinking can cause serious injury and many college and high school kids are dying from over consumption of alcohol (Chikritzhs et al. 2001). Binge drinking is identified as the number one health hazard for American college students today (Courtney & Polich, 2009). It is a common pattern of excessive