Should Drinking Age Be Lowered Essay

Those words spoken by Abraham Lincoln are as true today as they were in 1840, and yet history and current policies show us that for a large part 174 years has done very little to change people’s attitudes. The legal drinking age in the USA has been a topic of contention and debate since the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and ushered in the end of prohibition in 1933.

When you become an adult you can vote, join the military, jury duty, sign contracts, marry, apply for loans, make decisions regarding medical treatments, and be prosecuted as an adult (“Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 to a Younger Age?”). Adults have the right to make their own decisions, and there are many arguments on why 18-year-olds should be able to consume alcohol legally. In other countries like Europe with an MLDA of 18, there are fewer drunk driving traffic accidents and fatalities than an MLDA of 21 in America (“Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 to a Younger Age?”). Many argue that the government and the police should worry more about every legal person’s alcohol consumption instead of just underaged

In the United States, a citizen is considered an “adult” at the age of 18, and with that new title comes many responsibilities, such as the right to vote and to join the army. However, the legal drinking age in America is twenty-one. This issue has been a major controversy for some time now that faces both national and state governments. Should the drinking age be lowered to the age when legally a person becomes an adult and assumes all other adult responsibilities, or should it remain at a higher age to allow people to grow more mature and, hopefully, make more responsible decisions?

If the legal drinking age would be lowered to eighteen, teenagers would be able to experience these things at younger ages and with their parents or guardians within a reachable distance. Whenever a teenager is intoxicated, other people are afraid of seeking medical attention for the person because of the legal consequences it might

In the United States, when a man or women turn eighteen they are considered an adult. Being eighteen, they are not acknowledged as teenagers anymore. They have more freedom and more opportunities to become independent. Some of the opportunities an eighteen years old are given are the right to vote, open bank accounts, lease their own apartment or join the military. They have equal opportunities like adults over the age of twenty-one. However, anyone between the age of eighteen through twenty are not allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages or attend bars because they are considered underage. Anyone between the age of eighteen and twenty should not be denied the right purchase alcoholic beverage. They are mature and well aware of the consequences alcohol leads to. Allowing the legal drinking age to lower to eighteen, it will decrease unsafe drinking activities, decrease misdemeanors, and also decrease the percentage of drunk driving accidents. People are considered adults by the time they are eighteen they should have the equal right as any other adults, despite of their age.

5,000 people die each year due to underage drinking. Do we really want to lower the drinking age? Teens think it is fine to drink even though it is against the law and is very harmful to themselves and the people around them. Even though the law says you can’t drink before the age of 21 most people don’t follow it. We think the law should stay the same because it affects the brain, it is harmful to the people involved, and it affects the emotions and actions of the drinker.

In conclusion, the minimum drinking age should be lowered to the age of eighteen. The legal drinking age of twenty-one has not been effective and has not been fully enforced to stop underage drinking. With this in mind, lowering the drinking age will now allow underage drinkers to drink legally. At the age of eighteen the law claims to have many rights and privileges such as purchasing cigarettes, buying property, marriage, voting, and enlisting in the military but they are not able to consume and purchase alcohol. Young adults should be allowed to make their own decisions and the consumption of alcohol should be one of them. Not only will these young adults be able to drink legally, but also they will be more supervised. They are afraid of

In the United States alcohol is commonly used among the youths in the U.S. It is more used than tobacco and other illicit drugs. It also has a death rate of 4,300 deaths annual with underage youth. There are 29 states in the U.S. that allow drinking underage on a private premises only with the parents consent. The reason why the United States set the age of 21 for drinking age is teenager are not responsible and not trusted for alcohol beverages. Alcohol can effect and even weaken the brain. The use of alcohol will have and effect on the functioning of the brain during the teenage years. In my opinion the higher the age of drinking will save lives here in the U.S. and it reduces underage drinking and that's why it shouldn't be lowered. There

When you turn the age of 18 in the United States, you are considered an adult. Becoming an adult comes with its rights and responsibilities you can vote, smoke cigarettes, get married, serve on juries, sign contracts, join the military, and be prosecuted as an adult (“Drinking Age”). However, there is one thing you can not do, and that is legally drink alcohol. As an adult, you should be able to make your own decision about drinking alcohol. Granted, there are many people who are twenty-one and over who are very irresponsible. When they drink, they do irresponsible things such as getting behind the wheel of a car. However, it doesn 't matter if you are eighteen or sixty-seven you can still drink and be irresponsible. On the other hand, there are many young people who would drink responsibly and be safe. It is unfair that as young

Isn’t it funny how people who are considered “adults” cannot even make their own decisions? The drinking age on alcohol is a controversial social and cultural issue in today’s society; all fifty states have a minimum drinking age of 21. The legal drinking age should be lowered from the age of 21 to 18 allowing young adults to be granted the right to drink in restaurants, bars, at social events, in the comfort of their own home, and so on. If anything, lowering the legal drinking age would have a positive impact on the United Sates economy, because revenue will rise for the owners of these establishments, and the tax revenue that the government collects will increase as well. During the 1850s there was a state prohibition of alcohol, and in the 1920s the government attempted to outlaw the use and distribution of alcohol for the nation as a whole. Both of these laws were repealed due to the fact that they were “unenforceable”, contributed to organized crime, and the corruption of law enforcement. When we, as a nation, restrict and prohibit the use of alcohol to people we consider adults, we are only repeating history. Prohibition did not nor will ever work; the proof of this is the increasing amount of underage drinking. The minimum legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered from 21 to 18 because as adults people should be able to make their own responsible decisions about alcohol consumption, it will not contribute more to traffic accidents, and it will

POINT(Rhett): When you turn 18, it does entitle you to various things including the right to vote, enlist in the army, and marry (ProCon). But many rights are imposed upon a person when turning 21. Most of which could potentially be a lot more harmful to themselves and others. For example, to purchase a handgun, enter clubs (in most states), or adopt a child you have to be at least 21(“Young..Project”). Furthermore, in the state of Indiana you are not even allowed to use your cell phone while operating a motor vehicle if you are under the age of 21, so why should someone be allowed to drink at an age under 21? Not only does drinking under the age of 21 affect the person drinking, but also others involved. The fact of the matter is that the

There are those milestone ages that everyone is anxious to reach. We can't wait to be 13 because we're finally considered "teenagers." We can't wait to turn 16 so we can finally slide behind the steering wheel and drive on our own for the first time, a big step on the way to adulthood and independence. We can't wait to turn 18 because we're finally considered adults, can vote, and even enlist in the military in order to serve our country if we choose. Finally, and most importantly it seems, we can't wait to turn 21 so that we can legally drink alcohol. In fact, it seems that some teens are so anxious about that last step to adulthood that some don’t even wait until the legal drinking age to consume alcohol. This has resulted in underage drinking

Everybody should think what would happen by the chance that we change the drinking age to eighteen. Approximately 4,700 teens each year die from alcohol. Give or take drinking had regularly creatures at a young age. One of the risks that is one to drink alcohol at a young age this person is in more serious danger by become an alcoholic. In schools today teens are more pressured to try alcohol because it is what the “cool” kids are doing.

In 1933, the 21st Amendment expressed the legislative rights of states that states could set their own alcohol consumption laws. As a result, the minimum drinking age became various among different states.While most of the states have a drinking age of 21 years old, illinois(1933-1961) and Oklahoma (1933-1976) setup the minimum drinking age of 21 for men and 18 for women. That difference finally lead to the 1976 US Supreme Court case Craig v. Boren, which states the alcohol drinking age differences between men and women violate the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment of American Constitution, and 30 states lowered their minimum drinking age for both men and women to 18 to fix the violation toward 14th Amendment. However, the lower drinking age caused the increasing of teenager car accident. So, in 1984, the congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act to rise the national drinking age back to 21. Although there were no more big changes about national legal drinking age after that, a controversy of a reasonable drinking age was raised among citizens after experiencing the frequent changes of drinking age. Some people believe a lower drinking age is needed, while others think the drinking age should stay same (ProCon.org).

The drinking age has always been an issue in the United States. There are very many people that essentially argue at what age particularly young adults should be allowed to legally drink, which is fairly significant. People think that Congress should lower the drinking age to 18 years old, and others specifically argue that the legal age should remain at twenty-one in a major way. In the first place, the legal age should be lowered to eighteen years old.When a person reaches the age of 18 they are viewed as an adult in society, which is fairly significant. They essentially are entitled to their responsibilities and accomplishing things on their sort of own. Young adults actually are allowed to vote, smoke cigarettes, actually get married, and even join the kind of military in a major way. If really young adults are allowed to risk their lives for their country, then they should be allowed to drink legally. Furthermore, when people really begin to drink at a younger age, “diminishes the thrill of breaking the law to get a drink”(Should the Drinking Age generally Be for all intents and purposes Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?, 2017). For example, when starting to drink at a younger age, by the time getting into college are not going to literally want to drink a much. College students tend to drink more since you turn of age while you actually are at college. Lowering the drinking age would really diminish that thrill of drinking in college. “Normalizing alcohol consumption