Should The Drinking Age be 18?

1117 Words3 Pages

The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one. There are only a handful of countries that have the same high drinking age limit. In fact, some countries have absolutely no limit on the age of when a person can legally drink alcohol. Many groups are very vocal about their desire to see the legal drinking age reduced. Part of their argument stems from the fact that in most areas of life a person is accepted as an adult at the age of eighteen. They can vote, engage in military service and in most cases get married. With this amount of responsibility why should they not be allowed to start drinking legally at the same age?

Some people say that by lowering the drinking age a parent can help teach their children how to drink responsibly before the age of twenty-one. In fact, this matter is to consider because everything has to be learned. Therefore, children can be taught how to drink responsibly. Ruth C. Engs, Professor at Indiana University is one of the people supporting this argument. According to Professor Ruth C. the legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen allowing young adults to drink in controlled environments. In addition, children will be able to drink in presence of their parents or any other responsible adult. However, most of the states do not allow teens to consume alcohol in the presence of their parents or a legal guardian before the age of twenty-one. The limit of twenty-one years old is pushing young people to drink faster. As it is difficult to obtain alcohol, when they do they drink a lot, and fast. They drink to be drunk with games.

Sam Tracy chairman of Students and member at ACLU of Connecticut is also one of the people supporting the thesis. According to Sam Tracy, the age limit of twe...

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...rticles/2008/09/08/a-lower-age-would-be-unsafe>

Miron A. Jeffrey and Tetelbaum Elina “Does the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Save Lives?”. Economic Inquiry, forthcoming. (2009) < http://www.nber.org/papers/w13257.pdf>

National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) “Legislative Analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984”. National Youth Rights Association. .

Nothing, stander Apathy: Good Men Doing; "The Sole Morality: The Drinking Age and the Lessons of Prohibition.“The Sole Morality.

Tracy, Sam. “Is the National Drinking Age Doing More Harm Than Good?”, 23 Jan. 2014.

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