Everyone has one of those nights when you weren’t thinking and you got a DUI because you just had “one drink” and still had an alcohol level that was 0.8 or higher. This is very common with young teens, the thing is, they never learn their lesson after they get their drivers licence taken away by the police or get arrested for a week or so. After some research, a way to stop this has been specifically made for this problem. Every teen/adult would have a personal drinking age on their licence (the legal drinking age or higher). After being caught with a DUI, the teen/adult would have theirs raised. So say the legal age was 21 and they were recently caught with a DUI, their personal drinking age would have been raised to the age the court sets (lets say 24). The teen/adult would not been able to purchase/consume alcohol until their new drinking age which would be a pretty embarrassing blemish on their licence.
(http://www.chooseresponsibility.org/legal_age_21/)
Out of the information pulled out for this, this should be a legal law to start implementing into todays government. P...
in general and Indians in particular will not be tortured and treated unfairly. Protest essays,
This is inhumane and as a society we should be more than concerned, we should be angry
Each year, about 5,000 teens are killed or injured in traffic crashes as a result of underage drinking and about 1,900 are due to car accidents. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation) In the newsletter, safety in numbers by National highway traffic administration and U.S department of transportation “Of all the people who died in motor vehicle crashes during 2012, 31 percent died in crashes involving a drunk driver, and this percentage remains unchanged for the past 10 years” (Vol 1, 2013). Crashes involving alcohol include fatal crashes in which a driver had a BAC of .01 g/ ld. or higher (Underage Drinking Statistics)). Deadly crashes involving alcohol are twice as common in teens compared to people 21 and older. This is because teens’ judgment skills are harmed more by alcohol. Teens who drink not only risk hurting themselves, they risk hurting their friends, family, and even strangers when driving intoxicated. Teens and parents both need a strong reminder that underage drinking is illegal and can have disastrous consequences. According to Health Day News, “one study found that in 2011, 36 percent of U.S. college students said they'd gone binge drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting) within the past two weeks, as compared to 43 percent of college students in 1988. Since 2006, the current law has reduced the rate of drunk driving crashes among young Americans” (Preidt, 2014 and DeJong, 2014). This proves that lives have been saved after the legal drinking age increased. According to an article in Time Magazine called “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?”, “lowering the drinking age to 18 would stop infantilizing college students, but it would probably kill mor...
... middle of paper ... ... However, this is a hurdle that we must cross in order to maintain legitimacy in our political system.
Bob Marley once said, “Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.” This is the case when it comes to teens and alcohol. In America, the National Minimum Legal Drinking Age is a topic of great debate and controversy. Many people argue that the age restriction provides a safe environment for all citizens; whereas others disagree that the law creates an untrustworthy aura among teens. If the minimum legal drinking age were to be lowered, most people would be affected by it, whether it be by an increase in drunk-driving or a rise in crimes. Although teens are legally considered adults by the age of eighteen and the minimum legal drinking age prompts underage teens to exhibit risky behavior, the age restriction should not be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen because young teens would have easier access to alcohol, the minimum legal drinking age has decreased alcohol-related problems, and alcohol can cause damage to underage drinkers.
This is an example of federal government overreach into state affairs. This federal pressure has manipulated states into raising the drinking age so that they would not lose millions of dollars in highway funds. The reason that the drinking age was raised to 21 is because the government promised a 10 percent increase in highway funds to each state if they did so. The main reason the drinking age was increased was the persuasion by large interest groups, such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). Their main arguments for raising the legal drinking age to 21 was so that the law could protect people under that age and keep them safe. Authorities state that they enforce the underage drinking law for our own personal safety. MADD’s goal is to put “mandatory ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers and the development of advanced technology that will one day make cars inoperable by someone who is drunk.” They believe this will save hundreds of thousands of
The purpose of having an MLDA is to prevent underage consumption of alcohol, but the current age has been proven to have little effect on the matter. Teenagers have many ways of obtaining alcoholic beverages such as using fake identification cards and getting an older friend or family member to buy it for them. The methods used to purchase alcohol have been successful; teenagers account for twenty-two and a half billion dollars of consumer spending for alcohol in the United States.” ("Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?"). The thrill of breaking the law and being defiant is thrilling to young adults, so raising the age or restricting them from a right they should have is not helping the problem of underage drinking, but encouraging it. While it can be said that the legal age is twenty-one and it prohibits teenagers from purchasing and consuming alcohol publicly, it remains a fact that the teenagers do...
Self-discovery, preparation for life, effective education—this does not happen in college, insists Liz Addison in her work, Two Years Are Better Than Four. The best years of character growth essential in the transition to post-secondary education commonly take the form of college in the eye of the public; however, Addison believes this misconception is a result of community college not receiving fair consideration. Building a foundation for life begins most successfully at American community college, and as Addison puts it, “the philosophy of the community college, and I have been to two of them, is one that unconditionally allows its students to begin. Just begin” (212). In other words, a successful
This is an even more serious issue that needs to be fought with new policies and legislation. Current laws today in many states penalize convicted teens with fines, community service, alcohol education, license suspensions and documentation of incidents. Three potential alternatives or extensions to our current methods are to target the enablers of underage drinking, increase sobriety checks on high-risk days and require mandatory interlock breathalyzers on all vehicles. In states that have previously enacted these laws, there was a 21% decline in underage drunk driving accidents.
The debate of the drinking age has been long discussed throughout America. The drinking age has been 21 for the last 22 years, and people around the country have wondered weather or not this was the right call. People say that 18 year olds may not be mature enough to drink alcohol and might not know when to stop. It isn’t that teenagers don’t know how to stop, but rather have not been properly taught when enough has been consumed or how to drink responsibly. Changing the drinking age from 21 to 18 years old will take the thrill that teens get from breaking the law while drinking, will no longer give them the idea that drinking is the final stage of adulthood and full maturity, and will no longer force teenagers to drink in unsupervised areas.
It really is no secret that if the minimum legal drinking age were lowered, a large number of teens would then drink for perhaps the first time. “The age group with the most drivers involved in fatal crashes with Blood Alcohol Content levels of .08 or higher during 2011 was the twenty-one to twenty-four-year-olds” (“National Highway Traffic Facts”). Young adults are just as irresponsible at eighteen as they are at twenty-one, maybe even more irresponsible. The teenagers will indulge themselves on what they feel is a luxury the first chance they get. The young adults abuse the alcohol, and then go driving because even at twenty-one through twenty-four they are still not as responsible. If the age is lowered to eighteen, many eighteen-year-olds will go out and drink alcohol for the first time. The age group may rise to number one in fatal crashes. The National Highway Traff...
Traffic accidents and fatalities are most common to newly drinkers, regardless of the age that they start drinking. Since, accidents happen to new drinkers no matter what the age, there should be no problem with lowering the drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. A man that was found to be a new drinker, Richard Thomas Warren, age thirty, of Milton was driving near an intersection on Santa Rosa streets at 12:42 a.m. when he crashed into the front entrance of an attorney’s office. This man who hasn’t been drinking for very long, this proves that no matter what age you start drinking,whether its eighteen or thirty, you can make the same mistakes and lowering the drinking age will not be a very big concern if it is lowered to eighteen.
The enforcement of the current legal drinking age is both time-consuming and overall inefficient; the money and time used towards trying to prevent underage drinking and catch underage drinkers is taking money away from programs and businesses that could use this money much more effectively. For instance, the money used towards enforcing the current drinking age could actually be used to educate 18-20 year olds on safe drinking practices. Regardless of what the drinking age is set at, this age group is going to drink; approximately 3 out of 4 high school senior reported drinking alcohol at some previous point in their lives. So, if young adults are going to be drinking in spite of the law, the money used to enforce the law should then be used
The growing awareness of alcohol hazards has made people more cautious of their drinking habits, particularly young adults. At present young adults have the highest prevalence of alcohol consumption than any other age group. They also drink more heavily, experience more negative consequences, and engage in more harmful activities, specifically drunk driving. Although surveys have documented a decline in recent years, consumption rates remain highest from late teen years to the late twenties (Johnston1-3). Despite the long-term decline since 1982 in alcohol related traffic deaths, a 4 percent increase occurred between 1994 and 1995 among young adults age 21 and over (Hingson 4). As alcohol-impaired driving persists, legal and community initiatives intervene to help reduce the problem, as well as, continuing research on possible solutions.
As more and more innocent lives are taken by accidents involving alcohol, it's no wonder why the drinking age is enforced. Consumption of alcohol doesn't just pertain to drinking and driving but is also involved in teen deaths such as suicide, homicide, and other accidents including drowning. Last year, 224 Texans under the age of 21 died in traffic accidents caused by drunken drivers. How well is it being enforced though? A Gallup Youth Survey taken in May of 2001, found that 51% of teens between the ages of 13-17 said it is pretty easy to get alcohol. They are able to get it from their parents, a person who is of legal age, using a fake ID, or successfully stealing it. Underage drinking has become a serious problem in the United States. Texans under the age of 21 are not just dying in traffic fatalities, but they are also dying from alcohol poisoning. Teens are not drinking socially; they're drinking to get drunk. And they're hurting themselves.