In the society that we live in today there are laws and restrictions that we have to abide by to maintain order and safety. The Government set age restrictions for many things such as driving, voting, drinking, gambling, films/games, marriage, sex and work but the question that many people ask is why do we need them and are they really necessary? There are positives and negatives to age restrictions as they are there to keep you safe however they control our actions we do in life and when we do them. However, there are many levels of maturity, whether these are right or wrong is a personal opinion. There is no possible way to measure maturity when there are so many contradictions within the law.
There is a positive side to the argument as the law enforces these age restrictions to keep members of society safe and therefore recommend a sensible age as to when people are able to be part of such activities. For example, in the case of driving, the age one must be to take the test to achieve a license is seventeen. This is enforced due to the fact that people must be sensible and mature to drive a car to therefore not impair themselves or anyone else. The Government aim to protect society from the dangers that come with drinking alcohol due to the serious risks concerned with drinking excessively. However, most people are well aware of these dangers; alcohol is a drug and can become a serious addiction. It is illegal to sell alcohol to a person under the age of eighteen and also illegal to buy alcohol for someone who is under eighteen. It is a personal choice whether a person wants to drink or not. Although there is a drinking law in place not many people choose to follow it, there are many people that go against the law by drinking ...
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...f something that is less significant like voting? They can fight for their country yet they cannot draw a cross on a piece of paper.
The Government set these age restrictions as that is when they deem people are mature and responsible enough to handle the task in hand. But why should the Government control when we do things, shouldn’t it be a personal choice? Everyone knows the dangers and warnings concerned with such activities, therefore if they do not think they can handle the situation then they should not get involved. Although the Government are just trying to protect society, people should be responsible for themselves. We are expected to act like adults yet we are not treated like them. In many aspects of life we have to make choices as adults yet in so many more we have no choice.
Works Cited
http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/criminal/yourrights/500373.html
It may seem harsh to draw the line at 16 without compromise, but we, as Feld points out, do this with many other societal privileges and duties. The draft age is precisely 18, the driving age in most states is precisely 16 and so forth. Is a person more fit to be drunk a week before their 21st birthday than a week after? Drawing one line is the only way to avoid the problems associated with waiver laws that either provide too much discretion that lends itself to discrimination and to provide consistency.
I suppose I believed some sort of freedom would be granted to me just because I turned another year older, however that was not the case. I did not gain any more freedom. By law I am legally an adult, but to my parents and society I am still just a kid. The more I think about it the more I realize I still am just a child; I just want to deny it most of the time. On the other hand, people set a precedent that children are ignorant and naïve. Therefore, opportunities to prove otherwise are nonexistent. A controversial topic pertaining age could be the legal drinking age. People who are for lowering the age limit to 18 have the argument, adults who are 18 can risk their lives at war in the military yet that can’t have a drink. Verses, the people who say 18 year olds are still not fully developed into making decisions, let alone under the influence. I can see both sides argument and agree with both, but I lean toward if people are willing to risk their lives at war they should be able to have a beer. I believe that age limits and alters people’s views on them. Growing up is about messing up with everything and learning from those mistakes, and people should not judge or limit others possibilities because they forget that they were once young
This issue hit home for me because it puts many people at risk for things such as car accidents, binge drinking, alcoholism, depression, suicide, and rape, things no one should ever experience, let alone in middle or high school. These reasons are why the legal age to purchase, and consume alcohol should remain at 21 years of age.
There has been debate on what age should people drink. Many think we should be able to drink at 18 or many people think we should be able to drink at the age 21 or older. Both cases makes some good points of why. There shouldn’t be any debate at all because bottom line the age limit on drinking is fine where it is for many reasons.
...fusion, trouble, and worries about drinking underage. If other countries can have their drinking age lower than 21 and not have as much problems in the US, then why not lower the age? Good things could happen if the age is not 21, but lower.
...y safety, and a deterrent for future goals. The only way to insure health and safety for all is to insist that lawmakers not lower the drinking age to eighteen and keep it at twenty-one.
Drinking under the age of 21 should not be allowed because of the medical reasons behind it. “Brains can be severely damaged by alcohol, especially if the brain is not fully developed” (BigJohny). When you drink under the age of 21, you will get these long-term consequences from doing so. The long-term consequences that could come from drinking under the age of 21 are having brain malfunctions and becoming brain dead. Every time you drink you cause yourself to lose brain cells, without the brain being fully developed you will stop the growth of your brain cells while killing others. The brain is actually never fully developed until the age of 21. “Research indicated that the brain continues to develop until age 21, and young brains can be irreversibly damaged by alcohol” (BigJohny). When you are under the age of 21 and you decide to drink, the growing process of your brain could...
Before the Drinking age was passed many states had a drinking age of 18 or 19. But the main ways the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) got passed was from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Passing this act has saved quite of bit of underage accidents still today. Underage drinking has led to 2.7 million injures and 5000 deaths in the US. So with that being said the government needs to take in to consideration the risk of teens drinking and driving, in which they do with adults. In many articles the all said things around the government needs to make teen’s obey an zero tolerance to driving drunk and raise the consequence if they are caught doing so. Which seatbelt and DUI checkpoints have helped a lot to keep the numbers down of alcohol related incidents.
Teens today do things they know could get them into major trouble, such as going to parties, smoking and drinking. So why would people today want to have this problem, well it started when the age for drinking alcohol got raised to 21 years of age. Teens though that since the age was raised to such a high level and they could get married, sign contracts, join the army. That they could also drink, teens started going to parties then the drove home drunk so the law wouldn’t know, that they had been drinking (cons to the drinking age 10). The people thought that if they raised the age of drinking, drinking would go down and less accidents would happen. Well that didn’t go as planned it help in some states. Others the law has not really helped. Some states have made a proposal to lower the drinking age, all are similar , but different one state in particular to lowering the age is Missouri. As G.K. Chesterton said “The free man owns himself.He can damage himself with either eating or drinking;he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a fool and he might possibly be a damned soul;but if he may not, he is not a free man anymore than a dog.” So lowering the drinking age would make people free to damage yourselves.
Most people agree and strongly recommend that in order to drink, people should have a higher age of initiation and maturity because of the damages posed by drinking, which they lost themselves in alcohol. Like example, citizen need to be legally 21 to purchase a handgun , gumble in a casino or adopt a child. In which they have grown and know what they are doing by using their brains. Instead of doing it first then thinking afterwards, which always lead to bad result for themselves and for others. Furthermore, It also prevent kids who's being bullied or have a negative life, whichever they lack of experience to handle, away from alcohol. Considering they will soon find and drink alcohol becomes a solution for their problems by the lack of understanding about alcohol. Which they think it is just a eq...
Drinking Age Limit I. A. HOOK A-1. Everyone knows that it is illegal to consume alcohol until the age of 21 in the United States. Many people are in agreement with this legal restriction. Some would even say that it should be raised. However, the legal drinking age sometimes causes more problems then it prevents. B. I am here today to persuade you that drinking age limit should be lowered. C. Why? Because we care. We care about people who abuse alcohol and in that way harm themselves, their families, and innocent people around them. II. A. First, it is necessary to question this law. Why is 21 the "magical" age that makes one intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? Surely, some adults abuse alcohol and some teenagers in this ver room would be perfectly able to drink responsibly. Why not 18 or 35 or 40? At 18, people are considered adults. It may seem unfair to many observers to allow 18-20 year olds to marry, to have children, to own cars, homes, pay taxes, vote, fly planes, risk their lives in the armed forces own firearms and to be financially and socially independent, and yet to be legally prohibited from drinking a glass of wine in a restaurant, or even a glass of champagne at their own wedding. I think it is a problem to have a limit higher then the age of maturity. B. Teenagers look at drinks as something glamorous. It is view as an adult activity; and teenagers want to be adult ASAP.
In other countries around the world if you are under the age of 21 you can drink alcohol some countries don't even have an age limit, but in America you have to be 21 to buy alcohol. You can go to war and die for your country when you are 18, you can also vote, buy cigarettes, but you can't buy alcohol. One of the main causes of the drinking age being set to 21 was teenagers were getting into car accidents after getting drunk. I am not saying driving under the influence should be legal. What I am saying is there should be more government programs to educate and prevent people from driving intoxicated.
As stated before an argument frequently used when concerning lowering the drinking age is as a legal adult at age 18, one should be allowed to consume alcohol. However, the consumption of alcohol is a privilege not a right and due to the dangers posed by irresponsible drinking the age one should be allowed to drink should be higher. Just because one is considered an “adult” does not mean they posses the responsibility to drink legally. There are many rights in the United States that have a high age of initiation besides just consuming alcohol. “A person ...
While this issue may not appear to be a particularly important one, it often sparks controversy and debate amongst the proponents of both sides of the issue. Many who opposed to lowering the legal drinking age to anyone of 18 years or older often claim that maintaining the drinking restricts the irresponsible drinking younger people. However, those in support of the drinking age being lowered propose exactly the opposite. This would be that lowering the drinking age encourages younger drinkers to consume alcohol in an open environment where they are free from punishment and do not need to be pressured into breaking other laws and even regarding certain laws in general with disrespect since they have already broken one. (Engs) Additionally, as stated by many supporters of the legal drinking age being lowered, the legal
Did you know that in the year 1980 the legal drinking age was only 18? In 1987 there was a law passed that said in order to drink legally and to buy alcohol a person had to be 21. At the age of 18 people are allowed to buy tobacco, vote, get married without parental consent, and even join the armed forces, so why can’t some one who is 18 by alcohol. This is a question I have; I believe that the legal drinking age should be 18. Dr. Ruth Engs, a professor of Applied Heath Sciences at Indiana University, agrees with me also. She states, “the legal drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19 and young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments.” (Engs) These controlled places include restaurants, taverns, pubs, and official school and university functions.