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 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).
Should the Legal Drinking Age be Lowered? Alcohol has taken the lives of many young adults and in order to stop this chain reaction from occurring once again with new generations there needs to be a change. Young adults under 21 drink now because it is illegal and it is what causes them to drink irresponsibly and causes them to do many regrettable things, knowing that they are going against authority. On college campuses nationwide students are currently drinking illegally while under the age of 21 and if the drinking age was changed the whole aspect of drinking would be looked at differently. Lowering the drinking age, I feel would be the best solution to solving the underground drinking problem, it would allow for drinking to be more “open.” Having the drinking age at 21 allows for there to me more difficulty in keeping track of the kids who use it because they do it secretly and tend to abuse it more.
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?
Kyle Friedman 8/14/2014 week 2 Graphing Two Variable Proposal What should the legal drinking age be? This issue: Studies have shown that age can mean the difference between a person's life and death. Drinking is a serious epidemic in the united states today being the number one leading cause of death. People abuse alcohol on a daily basis and because of this innocent sober people have fallen victim to these people and their irresponsible choices. Now the question at hand is, would it matter if the age of drinking was not 21 and maybe 25?
Why Not Eighteen? Why is it legal for an eighteen-year-old to be able to sacrifice their life for their country, to get married, and to vote, but illegal for them to drink? The controversy and arguments for lowering the drinking age have been debated for years. Beginning with the early 1900s, the eighteenth amendment was ratified and had outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States following the Prohibition Movement. However, this amendment was ineffective in its enforcement and people continued to smuggle and consume alcohol as freely as they wanted.
We cannot legally purchase a handgun, gamble in a casino, or adopt a child until the age of twenty one. These are a high level of responsibility and our leaders and patrons feel they are at equal levels. Our Minimum Legal Drinking Age has reduced traffic accidents and fatalities. 100 of 102 analyses inquired in a 202 meta-study found that a higher legal drinking age associates with lower rates of automobile accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated a 13% decrease in car fatalities in 1975-2008 saving approximately 27,052 lives since then.
What is more frightening is 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United State is by 12 to 20-year olds; most of the time these people can get a hold of alcohol for free. This amount of underage drinking can cause a person to become more aggressive, which can lead to increased violence, injuries, and death. Sadly, within the United States, more than 4,000 people under the age of 21 die due to underage drinking. Many of which are from motor vehicle crashes and homicides, then with nearly 500 committing suicide on average after consuming alcohol.
In 2001 the Justice Department released an analysis comparing drinking rates in Europe and the United States. The conclusion: American 10th-graders are less likely to use and abuse alcohol than people of the same age in almost all European countries, including Britain. British 15- and 16-year-olds were more than twice as likely as Americans to binge drink (50 percent vs. 24 percent) and to have been intoxicated within the past 30 days (48 percent vs. 21 percent). Of Western European nations, only Portugal
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.