Lower the Drinking Age

In the early 1900’s, when the United States passed through a time of prohibition, numerous citizens were outraged that alcohol was forbidden. Even with the law forbidding all alcohol, the consumption levels didn’t decrease drastically. The only change was that drinking was all done underground; countless young adults constantly sneaked around the law to obtain a few drinks. Although individuals over the age of twenty can obtain alcohol, not much has changed; eighteen to twenty year olds still frequently sneak around. To fix this problem, some people believe that the United States should lower the drinking age because the wait until the magical twenty- first birthday to drink is absurd and contributes to the reason why the U.S. contains a plethora of underage drinkers.

States that did not comply faced a reduction in highway funds under the Federal Highway Aid Act. The U.S. Department of Transportation has determined that all states are in compliance with this act“(1) But, according to the national law, states must prohibit purchase and public possession of alcoholic beverages. Public possession does not apply to poss... ... middle of paper ... ...in life is larger for those to begin drinking under the age of 21. Violence is another outcome of drinking alcohol, especially underage drinking. Violence often lead to attacks, fights, and potentially suicide.

These facts clearly indicate that the current law is not even helping deter people under 21 from drinking, but instead are encouraging them to drink more. Counters/Solutions It seems logical that when turning eighteen, and gain the status of legal adult, people should have the choice of whether or not they want to drink. However, some believe that “enforcing the legal drinking age of 21 reduces traffic crashes, protects young people’s maturing brains, and keeps young people safe overall” (Why 21? 2011). “It saves lives by preventing alcohol-related traffic fatalities among 18-20-year-olds and the rest of the population” (Kindelberger, 2005).

Around the world, alcohol is used in many different ways: consuption, disinfectent,in religion and is also used for havin a good time. Consuming large amounts of alcohol can leave you in a drunk state and too much alcohol can kill you. This is why there is a legal driking age in Canada. However in certain parts of Europe, there is not a drinking age and even with no drinking age, there are less alcohol involved accidents per year. We should eliminate the drinking age in Canada because it will reduce the amount of accidents caused involving alcohol, will prevent fewer people from becoming alcoholics and will lower the amount of crimes committed.

This topic isn’t everyone agreed of. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age. Purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds (GPO Access). We have to stay the age of 21 to drink because younger age of 18 or low cause a medically irresposibility, reduce the percentage of young age, and lower the crimes of age 18 or lower. Most people agree lowing the MLDA 21 would be medically irresponsible.

The government supports the belief that people are not ready or responsible enough for alcohol until this age. However, various professors and researchers are discovering ways to disprove this belief. These people think that reducing the drinking age to eighteen would influence our country in a positive way. Not only do minors support this idea, but there are numerous people and organizations that support the idea of lowering the drinking age as well. The current drinking law is counterproductive in our society because it’s not effective in eliminating underage drinking, and leads to unsafe situations such as drunk driving and alcohol poison instigated deaths.

Parents are also to blame letting their kids drink and sometimes even buying it for their teens. The drinking age is twenty-one but all these teens are still getting alcohol. At this time I believe the drinking age should stay at twenty-one until there are stricter punishment for alcohol abuse. Today's laws are not what they should be to prevent teens from engaging in underage drinking. The laws are not cutting down on the number of deaths that occur because alcohol is involved or domestic disturbances.

At 18 years of age in the U.S, one can vote, smoke, serve on a jury, get married, and even die for their country yet they cannot have a glass of wine. Despite the fact that so-called adults have the right to make their own decisions, they are not allowed to consume alcohol until the golden age of 21. This law has caused those who are under the age of 21 to be tempted to break the law every time they want to consume alcohol. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would encourage people to drink responsibly and it would reduce traffic accidents that are caused by people driving under the influence. It is believed that alcohol originated around the Mesopotamian area thousands of years ago.

Many doctors could attest and the average people of society would agree that the lowering the minimum drinking age to 18 would be absurd being that that teens have not yet reached an age where they can handle alcohol responsibly, thus are more likely to harm or even kill themselves and others by drinking prior to 21 (ProConorg Headlines). A complete ban of alcohol will not serve as a reasonable method of lowering any type of drinking as proved in 1933 when prohibition ended. Practical restrictions should be able to suffice, however in some instances lowering the legal drinking age from 21 did not stop teen drinking but it was instead displaced. The problem has driven underage binge drinking into private and less controlled environments, such as homes that do not have proper guardians or colleges where a large amount of the population are teens. They have just gotten out of high school and are at a high risk for peer pressure from the older students and clubs and Greek organizations (Hanson, 2010).

Parents also agree that this law is useless and allow their under-aged teens to go out when they know what will happen at the party. So why is this law enforced by the law but not in the world? What will it take to get the government to understand that teens don’t care about this law on drinking? Onto the history of teen drinking. Drunk driving casualties is one of the factors that caused people to question the age of which someone is allowed to drink.