DRINKING AGE LIMIT On December 5, 1933, the repeal of alcohol prohibition by the 21st Amendment allowed each state to set its own drinking age limit laws. At that time most of the states’ minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was 21. Later during the Vietnam War era, the passage of the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 in July 1, 1971. Following this, thirty states lowered their MLDA to 20, 19, and 18. During the 1970’s reports showed that teenage car accidents increased in states where the MLDA had been lowered from 21 years old.
The majority of the people voting for the age limit to drop to 18 are the people who are under 18 or who are 18. They feel that 18 year-olds are prepared to make responsible decisions about drinking (Amethyst Initiative). The Amethyst Initiative believes that lowering the drinking age will only make situations worse for society. But the fact is, these people are not thinking about the consequences and are only looking at the pleasure. “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).
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.
“Alcohol related fatalities have declined over the past 25 years…in all age groups” (McCardell). By lowering the drinking age we could educate drinkers earlier, not only with knowledge, but practical, useable experience in a controlled environment. In college, most people under twenty-one will drink, regardless of the law, and will do so with little to no experience, increasing the chance of risky
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)”.
The U.S. has the strictest youth drinking laws in western civilization and yet has the most drinking-related problems among its young. And there seems to be a connection between these two facts. When I was a teen in the 1930s my peers drank to physical and mental oblivion on weekends to demonstrate their "manhood," and, to a lesser degree, their "womanhood." Alcohol abuse had received new energy as a result of Prohibition. The harvest of forbidden fruit was bitter and disastrous.
Drinking privately is extremely unsafe and when kids are in a situation they can't handle, they can then ask for help. Majority of teens are capable of being responsible and can handle the low age. This will alleviate all the problems with college students. Underage drinking is a huge problem in the United States because it has one of the highest ages in the
Reduction of Drinking Age to 18 Years The issue of minimum drinking age in the U.S has been a point of contention for decades. Any college or high school student in the U.S will advocate for drinking age to be lowered from 21 to 18, yet the federal law upholds its policy of having the minimum drinking age at 21. Notably, drinking age differs in certain States where persons under 21 years of age are allowed to drink though only under the supervision of an adult. Many may tend to wonder why United States still holds on to this outdated law as opposed to the case in most countries around the world, which have their minimum drinking age at 18 or 19. This paper intends to explore the reasons as to why the minimum drinking age should be reduced from 21 to 18 years in all States.
However, these declines started in 1980 before the national 1987 law which mandated states to have 21 year old alcohol purchase laws. The decrease in drinking and driving problems are the result of many factors and not just the rise in purchase age or the decreased per capita consumption. These include: education concerning drunk driving, designated driver programs, increased seat belt and air bag usage, safer automobiles, lower speed limits, free taxi services from drinking establishments,
Newly-legal drinkers often purchase alcohol for their underage peers, creating a "trickle-down" effect. [34] Surveys show that the most common source of alcohol among 18- to 20-year olds is their 21- to 24-year-old peers. [35] MLDA 21 helps prevent underage binge drinking by making it harder for people under 21 to obtain alcohol. Binge drinking peaks among 21- to 25-year-olds at 45.9%, while the binge drinking rates of those aged 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, and 18-20 are 1.5%, 7.8%, 19.4%, and 35.7% respectively. [23][36] MLDA 21 exerts valuable social pressure on potential underage drinkers.