Should the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18?

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Should the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18? The debate over whether or not the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 has still not been settled. For years, people have discussed the advantages and disadvantages to being able to legally consume alcohol at the age of 18 and still have not been able to come to an agreement. Some experts think the “solution is to lower the legal drinking age to 18” since you can fight for your country at the age of 18, you should be able to purchase and consume alcohol (Ogilvie). Others may argue that lowering the drinking age could produce negative results. There would be an increase in teenage drunk driving, which could lead to an increase in alcohol related car accidents amongst teenagers. Adults are more responsible and mature mentally at the age of 21 rather than the age of 18. High school students would be exposed to more alcohol, which could result in even more underage drinking. Consuming alcohol at a young age could damage a teenager’s body badly. Research proves that lowering the legal drinking age is not a smart idea. Although lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 (MLDA) will decrease the amount of unsupervised drinking, the MLDA shouldn't be lowered to 18 because it will produce many negative results. Lowering the MLDA could increase the amount of teenage drunk driving. Between 1970 and 1975, “there was an increase in teenage car accidents because 29 states in the United States had a MLDA lower than 21” ("Drinking Age ProCon.org”). “These changes occurred when the minimum age for other activities, such as voting, also were being lowered” ("Minimum Legal Drinking Age"). Scientists began doing “several studies in the 1970’s that showed the effects of lowering the MLDA” ("Minimum Legal Drinking Age"). The studies “found that motor vehicle crashes increased significantly among teens when the MLDA was

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