Drinking Age In The United States

In the United States, 18-year-olds are considered adults. They can vote, get married and get a license for a gun yet they are not allowed to drink. Many people think that the drinking age should be 18, but others strongly believe it should be 21 for doing all kinds of things. Drinking in the United States has become a controversy for the drinking age; 18 or 21. There are many reasons why the drinking age should stay the same and many of why it should be 18. Even though many Americans think that people under 21 do not have the capacity to handle drinking, in my opinion, drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 because teenagers at the age of 18 can make important decisions, so drinking should be a decision they can too decide whether to

Once a person reaches the age of 18, they are allowed to tattoo their bodies, smoke tobacco, gamble and even enlist if they wanted to! As an adult, they want to be treated as one but how can they feel like an adult if hanging around with their friends and drinking beer while watching TV is illegal? Of course, that does not stop them, though. The United States is one of the few countries in which still have such a high minimum drinking age. Although most people think young adults (18-year olds) are irresponsible, the minimum drinking age should be lowered to 18 because they deserve to be recognized as adults in order to avoid illegal, uncontrolled drinking and other illegal actions.

When you are 18 you are considered an adult. You can fight for your country, buy tobacco, live on your own, be tried as an adult, and a lot of other stuff. If a person can do all those things, but can’t drink there is something wrong with this country. Per the article Is it time to lower the drinking age to 18? it states “most proponents for a lower minimum age immediately point to Europe as an example, where the drinking age is lower than 21 almost everywhere. As an American who spent half a year living in France and traveling through other European countries with about a dozen other American college students, I can tell you the difference between the way they drink and the way we drink is akin to comparing someone who enjoys an after-dinner mint to the fat kid who dove headfirst into Willy Wonka’s chocolate river” (Fulton). This quote shows us that if we lowered the age drinking would not be so important. By not making it so important might lower the exciting factor of drinking

The minimum drinking age in the U.S. have questioned and in continuous debate to keep 21 years as minimum dinking age or lowering to 18 years. There are many opinions and arguments for those who approve a change and those who defend the policy. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 stablish 21 years as the minimum age to consume, purchasing or publicly possessing of alcoholic beverages. People that support this law affirm that are more the benefits on keep or even raising 21 years old as minimum age to drink since the car accident have been decreasing since the approve of this act. In the other hand, people who are against this law, argue that keeping or even raising the minimum legal age to consume alcoholic beverages have not change

Many people today advocate for the drinking age to remain where it is, such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and the president of the American Public Health Association. MADD has been very active in recent years, whether it be through lobbying or mass media appeals. They often use scientific evidence, statistics, and their emotional appeal as mothers of dead children to coerce their audiences into believing that drunk driving and the drinking age correlate. For example, “Since the 21 law was widely enacted, the number of young people killed annually in crashes involving drunk drivers under 21 has been cut in half, from more than 5,000 individuals in the early 1980s to around 2,000 in 2005” (Dean-Mooney). Using solid numerical evidence boosts their appeal to logos, not to mention that these statistics are very easily decipherable. It is obvious to any reader that, according to this passage, a higher drinking age leads to less fatalities. The author of the piece mentioned here is also the national president of MADD, which

As an eighteen year old in America, you are able to sign housing contracts, join the military, marry a loved one, or even own a firearm but you cannot have a legal drink. We are allowing young American citizens to sign their life away to fight for our country yet if they are seen with a beer they will experience legal complications. Also, at the age of eighteen you are able to smoke and purchase cigarettes, why make drinking different? Underage drinking in America is inevitable. Bill H.R 734, Eliminating the Restrictions of Legal Drinking Age, proposes to eliminate having a legal drinking age in the United States. With having no drinking age in the United States it can help teens learn responsibilities of being an adult. People all around the world drink alcohol, both legally and illegally. There are many incidents of young Americans getting caught underage drinking every day. Allowing the drinking age to be eliminated can help teens learn responsibilities about drinking and affects alcohol can cause. Lowering the drinking age would help prevent crime and personal injuries that are caused by alcohol abuse.

In the United States you are legally an adult at age 18. That entails being able to vote for our president, get married, and even join the military and go to war, but with all these things you still can’t drink legally. The present law says that an 18 year old can go to war where they may lose their life for their country, but you still have to be 21 to drink alcohol. If we allow people to be an legal adult at 18 we should allow them to make that decision to drink.

Fatal car crashes have been an issue since the introduction of the automobile. Thankfully, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an article published March 21, 2017, “The percentage of teens in high school who drink and drive by more than half since 1991” This is in part due to the MLDA Act that has restricted many new drivers from getting drunk and recklessly driving through towns. In that same article the CDC also claims, “Young drivers (ages16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of .08% than when they have not been drinking.” Any change to the Act to lower the drinking age will only more likelihood to a fatal crash within that age group. At the Roanoke College, a private and liberal arts institute in Maryland, students complied a paper assignment with statistics of fatal car crashes due to drunk driving below the minimum drinking age. “…for the 19- and 20-year-old age cohort, after implementation of the age law, there was a startlingly and statistically significant decline (to the 4% level) in the number of driver deaths in single-vehicle nighttime accidents...” While adults and older teens would claim they could still drive sober and drink below the age of 21, the statistics show otherwise. No one can, in good thinking, lower

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.

According to Carla, “on average 1,100 a year die from alcohol-related traffic crashes and another 300 die in non-traffic alcohol-related deaths”(Main). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that “relative to adults, young people who drink and drive have an increased risk of alcohol-related crashes because of their relative inexperience behind the wheel and their increased impairment from alcohol (U.S. Dept). It is an obvious argument that no matter what age an individual is, if they are under the influence of alcohol, they are at a higher risk of getting in a car crash but it is more likely for younger people because they do not have a high tolerance as olders do. Many individuals feel that they can overcome those obstacles when driving because they are not in the right state of mind which leads to future accidents or

In 1984, president Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (McCardell 75). This set the legal drinking age officially to twenty-one. This act was put into order to reduce drunk driving and vehicle accidents. While all of this may be true, times have changed and there is more to consider. Automobiles are now safer with seat belts, airbags and other technological advances. Author John J. Miller states that “Many politicians and lobbyists find the legal drinking age of twenty-one to be a great success, praising it for reducing drunk driving fatalities without considering that other factors, such as seat belt laws and safer cars, have helped” (Miller 25). These advancements should be kept in mind when comparing

With food, there comes a variety of cultural differences with beverages. One of the most popular drink markets in the United States is energy drinks. This industry has grown significantly in the past ten years, and many of the companies are household names, such as Red Bull, Monster, and Rockstar Energy. While they have mainstream success in the United States, many countries look down on these products because of their use of certain supplements, such as excess amounts of caffeine of taurine. Some countries have done things such as banning the sale of these products to minors, or even outlawing them completely. These products vary from culture to culture, with some countries introducing their own product lines, ones that are only available

What the Mothers Against Drunk Driving do not understand is that fatalities related to drunk driving were already declining prior to the law being put in place (“Fight For Your Right,” 2011). With people becoming more aware of how dangerous drunk driving is, it has been happening much less. Kindelberger (2005) found that, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that through 2002, the increase in the minimum legal drinking age has saved 21,887 lives in 50 states.” There is no doubt about it that drunk driving still occurs because it does. Drunk driving will be around as long as alcohol is around; there is no way around it. The fact that Mothers Against Drunk Driving are trying to give all the credit of less traffic fatalities to the legal drinking age being twenty-one years old is ludicrous. Although alcohol does play a role in some of the traffic fatalities it does not contribute to all of

“Recent studies show an increasing rate of accidents occurring in the United States is due to young teenagers driving under the influence of alcohol” (Camy). This particular age group is at a much higher risk in car accidents than the adults because they are less experienced in driving. Therefore driving while intoxicated makes it more likely for these teenagers to get in motor accident. Teenagers tend to drive faster and more reckless resulting in a lack of control of the vehicle. “On

February 2015: Senates from multiple states, such as Minnesota and Maryland, have proposed a bill to lower the drinking age to eighteen… for active members in the military (CBS Baltimore). A definite step forward, but will definitely stir up some trouble. It is not an argument in saying those serving our country should be able to raise a glass to it, but that is not where the trouble comes from. Why not change the drinking age to eighteen for everyone? Shouldn’t everyone live under the same rules? Surely that sounds more fair. The drinking age across the United States should change the drinking age to eighteen because by this age, we are already given a handful of responsibilities such as being able to vote, join the military (without consent), and sign legal documents for yourself, so to add one more responsibility should not be any different.