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Lowering the legal drinking age us
Should the legal age of drinking decrease
Impact of lowering the drinking age
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Is lowering the age of drinking a good thing or bad thing? In my many days spent researching I find lowering the age of drinking to 18 to be something good. Age 21 hasn’t even come close to or try to stop kid underage drinking. That is why lowering the age to 18 might be the right way to help the younger kids. At 18 their healthy enough for alcohol, they can join the Armed Forces, and they are mature enough. Health is the main concern of lowering the drinking age. The most terrible is that younger kids are binge drinking. This is when a person consumes more then five drinks, and is drinking to get drunk not to just chill around. Many people have gotten alcohol poisoning or even been hospitalized for it. How has binge drinking become such a problem? An author from USA Today has done some research on this …show more content…
When an individual turns 18 they are seen more as an adult and take many adult decisions. This person also gains many rights such as the right to vote. If someone who is 18 gets into trouble they will also get tried as an adult and get consequences such as going to jail. The maturity factor has been looked at in many of the articles but one stuck out to me such as “The “old enough to fight, old enough to drink” argument has force. In fact, 18-year-olds in America are old enough to do pretty much everything except drink. Along with joining the military, 18-year-olds can vote, marry, sign contracts, and even take on a crippling lifetime burden of student loan debt in pursuit of an education that may never land them a job. Yet we face the absurd phenomenon of colleges encouraging students to go into six-figure debt—which can’t be discharged in bankruptcy—but forbidding them to drink on campus because they’re deemed insufficiently mature to appreciate the risks” (Reynolds A17). These facts opened my eyes and made me for sure for to lower the age of drinking to age
According to the SSDP the reason that the drinking age is what its is all around the country right now is because the states were forced into it by the government, The government cut state highway founding by 10% to any state that didn 't play ball. This according to the students took away any chances of state coming up with better methods of preventing alcohol abuse among the younger kids. “campaigns/lowering-drinking-age http:ssdp.org”
Primarily, the drinking age should be lowered to teach responsibility and safety in young adults. The idea seems paradoxical; however, the high drinking age that is present in the U.S. today has only pushed underage drinking underground (Balko 458). In fact, America has the highest minimum drinking age in the world (Balko 459). Even though the American drinking age remains high, America still remains with an astonishingly large number of alcohol-related accidents and deaths. Is this statement a coincidence? Throughout the years alcohol has become more and more of an issue in young adults, but the correct actions are not taking place. If alcohol were to legally be put in the hands of Americans eighteen and above, these individuals would likely be forced to learn a sense of safety and responsibility. As stated by Caryn Sul...
Lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen is a good idea because it will most likely promote responsibility, alcohol consumption will be more controlled, and, if not done so, it is posing as discrimination against the eighteen to twenty age group; however, lowering the legal drinking age back to eighteen can be fatal because the brains of the eighteen to twenty year old age groups are not fully developed, binge drinking and alcohol addiction rates will go up, and the drinking and driving rates will increase.
There has been an ongoing controversy in the United States on whether the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen like most of the world or if it should stay at twenty-one. Underage drinking has been a major controversial issue for years, yet why is it not under control? Teenagers are continuing to buy alcohol with fake identification cards, drink, get into bars, and drink illegally. As a teen, I have proof that these things are going on not only in college but in high school as well. There are a lot of factors that come together to why the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen; the most obvious reason is that too many people are drinking before they are twenty-one.
On the other hand, adults aged 18 have their own rights to make a decision to whether consume alcohol or not. For example, once children turn 18 years old, they are mature enough to make their own decisions. Cloud states, “After all, in almost every other legal and cultural respect, you’re an adult at 18. You can vote, adopt children, sign up for Iraq or become a commercial pilot at 18. Treating alcohol differently helps turns it into a holy grail of adulthood.” (Cloud). Although, in the United States, 18 years o...
...e minimum legal drinking age in the United States should remain at twenty-one years old. Since the National Legal Drinking Age Act was ratified, the consumption of liquor among minors has abated significantly. With the restriction in affect, the United States is definitely a safer place when it comes to alcohol use. Even though, the reduction of the drinking age would get rid of the taboo that surrounds alcohol which would result in fewer teens drinking just to be accepted by their peers, young adolescents now have a harder time getting access to alcohol due to the minimum legal drinking age resulting in less alcohol-affiliated problems and a decrease in damage to their bodies. Teens and alcohol are not a good mix so citizens of the United States should keep them separated as best as they can. By having a minimum age limit of twenty-one, that is a great way to do it.
The controversy on the proper drinking age is one that has been repeatedly discussed and researched over the years. Its common to hear the argument “If someone is old enough to take a bullet for their country, they should be allowed to drink alcohol.” But is that enough justification? Some would say no. “According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) it is estimated that in 2004 there were more than 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 696,000 assaults annually associated with excessive drinking” (Fennell 247). Given these numbers, would lowering the drinking age really be the best thing for America’s youth?
As one of the major social problem, underage drinking can cause negative affect on both teenagers themselves and the whole society. Based on the research, approximately 190,000 youth under 21 visited emergency room for alcohol related hurts, even I accompanied one of my friends to ICU for alcohol poisoning nearly month ago. Annually about 5000 individuals under 21 die from it, not including other mature people directly or indirectly killed by them. Meanwhile, child’s brain and emotional developments are still in process until 20s so that taking alcohol will produce great damage on their body health. For example, alcohol can interfere with children’s capacity to build new, short, and lasting memories of information because it shrinks hippocampus about 10
With all of the alcohol problems with underage drinking should the drinking age be lowered just to offset the problem. Studies prove that those who drink before age 21 have considerably more alcoholic problems at work, with family, and with police (Lyons 18). If we lower the age too soon without enforcing the punishments way more than we do now then we will just of lowered the age at which kids start drinking. There has to be an off set something that will stop teens from drinking illegally. Therefore it would not be smart to lower the drinking age until the punishment will match the crime. Until that day the drinking age should be maintained at twenty-one.
America has turned to an age of underground binge drinking and if something is not done to change this, more fatalities may take place. America must follow the lead of other countries and slowly phase kids into learning how to drink responsibly.
Reducing the drinking age would increase the amount of youth who drink and this would lead to more irresponsible drinking.It is not a fact of age but the alcohol itself. Ronald J. Hunsicker, president and CEO of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Provider (NAATP), says, “I’m not sure that the issue is age” (“College Presidents” 2). He is inferring that the problem is not the legal age but, the problem is who and how responsible is he or she. Hunsicker believes the real problem is “…alcohol abuse and alcoholism” (“College Presidents” 2). While the idea of the person and how responsible he or she may be might play a large role in the conflict, I find that age does play a large factor. Youth under the age of twenty one tend to be just too irresponsible and drink mainly just to become drunk. Binge drinking has become a large cultural change, especially in underage college students, since the increase of the legal age in 1984 (Heath 1). If the legal drinking age were to be reduced to eighteen, then would that also reduce the amount of binge drinking that takes place within ages eighteen to twenty one? Kids are going to do as they please, especially in college. College is the first time they are finally out of the house and have a sense of freedom. Most new college students are going to branch out and try new things ...
Despite the problems that would arise, many people are beginning to feel that the drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. Studies have been made; however, no hard evidence suggesting lowering the minimum drinking age would help have surfaced. Although there are countless studies of how alcohol has many harmful effects on teenagers, there is a great deal of negative criticism about what if the drinking age is lowered. Some would say the morally right decision is to not allow teens the chance to hurt themselves. Everyone is entitled to having his or her own opinions and beliefs. However, the overall health of the youth of our country seems a little more important than some personal belief. The drinking age should not be lowered due to the fact drunk driving, juvenile delinquency, and alcohol-related medical issues related to teens will increase.
I’m here to persuade you in supporting a lower legal drinking age to age 18 because 1. It would eliminate temptation of breaking law (to drink) 2. Reduce unsafe drinking activities (Binge drinking) 3. It should correspond to the age of adulthood
There are a number of reasons why teenagers feel the urge to drink. Social environment, peer influence, stresses, and even factors such as media influence contribute to underage drinking. Peer pressure is as well known use among teens. Americans have a burning desire to be accepted and liked by their peers. Everyone wants to feel a sense of belonging. Many adolescents feel that they need to drink alcohol to gain this acceptance by the others around them. Stress is also another reason why teens may feel apt to drink alcohol. Stress causes teenagers to look for a quick escape from the problems, which they face, in their day-to-day lives. This quick escape can be found in the shape of a bottle. In the eyes of an underage drinker, alcohol is the cure to all problems, a way to forget all of stress and pressures that are facing them. They feel that it will numb their pain and continuing to use alcohol will result in maybe another problem, substance abuse.
As the current legal drinking age remains to be 21, adolescents today are increasingly drinking large amounts of alcohol behind the backs of others. Along with this being illegal, alcohol-related dangers within our youth like dependency, disease, and irresponsible behaviors are problems that many are finding ways to prevent by increasing awareness; some people have even suggested that raising the drinking age would be the ultimate solution. However, is the constant routine of warning adolescents and preventing them from drinking really working? Based on the vast number of anti-alcohol programs in schools and existing laws forbidding the use of underaged drinking, today, there are still increasing reports. Instead of repeatedly preventing our