Argument Essay Changing Drinking Age to 18

When people turn eighteen they are finally considered an adult. They can join the army, vote, buy cigarettes or tobacco products, get a tattoo and even die for our country. Although everyone considers that person to be an adult, they are still not old enough to buy or consume alcohol. A person can be responsible enough to live on their own, make their own money, pay their own bills, and yet they are still not considered old enough to purchase or consume any type of alcohol. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would help prevent the crime and personal injuries that are caused by alcohol abuse.

Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make a lot of sense in the world. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make more sense. It would be better for the teens that drink on college campus. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because you can vote at eighteen, buy tobacco, it’ll reduce the thrill of breaking the law, evidence supports that early introduction of drinking is the safest way to reduce juvenile alcohol abuse, and college people that are not 21 drink also.

There always has been controversy as to should the united states lower the drinking age to 18. Eighteen year olds should have the right to drink. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen it will give people supervision, teach responsibilities, and eighteen years olds are already considered adults; however, it may cause binge drinking, it will lead to more deaths, and drinking damages brains cells and especially the body itself.

Some people find it hard to understand that at the age of eighteen you can fight and die for your country, but you cannot legally drink or purchase alcoholic beverages. Others find it hard to believe that there are people who want people under the age of twenty-one drinking. The important question is: should the drinking age be lowered to eighteen instead of remaining at twenty-one?

In the United Sates, statistics show that the consumption of alcohol by minors has decreased in the last twenty years, but the consumption of alcohol by adults ages twenty-one through twenty-four have increased (Wechsler and Nelson 987). Waiting until you are twenty-one to legally drink is causing adults to binge drink without thinking of the consequences.

There are statistics that alcohol consumption has lowered since 1984. Some attribute this to the fact that drinking age is set at 21, but this is not absolutely the reason because even where it is set at 18 people make their own choices of whether to drink or not. It is also evident that setting the drinking age at 21 against 18 does not eliminate teenage drinking problems; instead it just keeps them on hold until the teens get to 21 years of age. In some cases keeping the minimum drinking age at 21 encourages teens to drink more. Hence drinking age should be set at the age of 18. Here are some of the reasons why.

The drinking age in the United States is a contradiction. At the age of eighteen, one can drive a car, vote in an election, get married, serve in the military and buy tobacco products. In the United States you are legally an adult at eighteen. An eighteen-year-old, however, cannot purchase alcoholic beverages. The minimum drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one in the United States.

There are many arguments on why the legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen. To some, lowering the drinking age to eighteen makes sense and to others it does not make sense at all. Most people believe that if eighteen year olds are old enough to make big decisions such as enlist in the Army, Navy, or other Military services then eighteen year olds are old enough to drink also. Not only does lowering the legal drinking age put the drinker at harm but also the people around the drinker. There are so many reasons why the legal drinking age should not be lowered, never less, three valid and proven reasons why the legal drinking age should not be lowered is, the effect on the brain, the safety of the drinker and the people around them, and the number of deaths that will increase.

When teens turn 18 they deserve all the rights that come with being an adult, lowering the drinking age will not only cause teens to become more responsible it will also reduce drunk driving accidents as seen in other countries who have already implemented this law.

Almost everyone can agree that alcohol should not be given or allowed to children or young adults under a certain age. Alcohol is a substance that is very dangerous and if you used incorrectly or immaturely the consequences can be great danger to the users or the ones around them. The topic of lowering the drinking age has been in discussion for many decades. “Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states lowered their age for drinking alcohol. The results were catastrophic. Highway deaths among teenagers and young adults skyrocketed. Almost immediately, states began raising the minimum drinking age again.” “In 1984, Congress passed the Uniform Drinking Age Act, which required states to have a minimum drinking age of 21 for all types of alcohol

The drinking age should remain at twenty-one rather than be moved to eighteen because drinking as an adolescent can cause many health problems that would be nonexistent if alcohol was not a factor. According to the website, helpguide.org, “…researchers believe that heavy drinking at this age [18-25], when the brain is still developing, may cause lasting impairments in brain functions such as memory, coordination, and motor skills…” This is just one way that alcohol consumption as an adolescent can lead to negative health effects. Other effects of adolescent alcohol consumption are explained. In the same article the author says, “The highest prevalence of problem drinking occurs among young adults aged 18 to 25, nearly 42% of whom admit to binge drinking at least once a month…” This factor is important because many health problems that young adults experience in regards to alcohol are due to binge drinking. According to the website, indirect.gov.uk, “This makes young people particularly vulnerable to the long-term damage caused by alcohol. This damage can include: cancer of the mouth and throat …depression and suicidal thoughts…liver cirrhosis and heart disease.” These are just some of the health risks that teen drinkers face. The age should not be lowered because of alcohol’s adverse health effects on adolescents.

The drinking age is a very controversial issue that people tend to talk about a lot. The minimum legal drinking age should always stay at twenty one years of age. For the United States and should not be lowered to age eighteen. The maturity level has a lot to do when it comes to drinking. At eighteen years old the mind is entering the phase of adulthood which in some cases the eighteen years old just graduated from high school. Maturity is by far what on how they are going to want to act society has been making them think doing bad things is a good thing. Negative affect is causing them to get affected mentally at a young age. The damages on the brain would cause extremely health issues later in life. The health defects to the youth, such as

What would happen to you if you were drinking at 18 and you got injured? 18-year-olds are looking to get drunk, not just drink. Most of the college or high school kids are trying to get drunk. For most college kids they drink when they are under age at college parties. 18-year-olds aren't fully physically and mentally developed. The common age that someone is fully developed is at the age of 25. 18-year-olds would have a hard time in school. Most 18 year olds are still in high school or have just started college. Most people who drink have hangovers and that would make your day a lot harder. The drinking age should continue to stay at 21 years old.

Twenty one, twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen; these are the ages most teenagers consume alcohol for the first time. This is a sad epidemic that our country deals with every day. The drinking age is the age at which it is legal for a person to consume or buy alcoholic beverages. The laws of the drinking age cover a wide range of issues and behaviors, addressing when and where alcohol can be consumed. These laws vary among different countries, and many laws have exemptions or special circumstances. Most laws for the legal drinking age apply only to drinking alcohol in a public places, with alcohol consumption in the home being mostly unregulated. Some countries also have different age limits for different types of alcoholic drinks. In the United States of America, the legal drinking age is 21 years old. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed on July 17, 1984 by the United States Congress as a mechanism where all states would become required to legislate the age of 21 years of age as a minimum age for purchasing and consuming alcoholic beverages (Anonymous). For a vast number of reasons, the drinking age should stay at 21.

At the age of eighteen people are allowed to purchase and use tobacco products in forty-six of the fifty states. Eighteen you can also begin to vote. They can also establish a checking and saving account and apply for loans. And you can also get married without parental approval in forty-eight of the fifty states. In Iowa, you can drink underage if on private, non-alcohol-selling premises, with parental consent or for medical purposes. Gabrielle Glaser said “Raising the drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking – it’s merely driven it underground, to the riskiest of fraternity parties that make ‘Animal House’ look quaint.” The number of alcohol poisoning from eighteen to twenty-four-year-olds nearly tripled from 779 cases to 2,290. Of the 190 countries, sixty-one percent have a drinking age of eighteen or nineteen years old yet for the age of twenty-one, it is six percent, which is even less percentage of countries that allow sixteen to seventeen-year-olds drink, which was at eleven percent.