Since the beginning of the United States, alcohol has been apart of the US and it’s culture. During the colonial times of America people drank alcohol on a regular basis, but the colonists strong social views on drunkenness stopped many from drinking over moderation. The first controversy with alcohol and the US occurred after the Revolutionary War and was referred to as the Whiskey Rebellion. This rebellion was led by farmers who produced liquor who felt the taxing of alcohol was unfair. Another time period when the culture of alcohol changed was during the Industrial Revolution. During this time the view of alcohol changed from “good creature of God,” to “demon rum,” and the temperance movement started to emerge. Many organizations formed
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This era in US history is popular for the terms and names like smuggling, bootlegging, and Al Capone. During this time period people would illegally make, sneak in, and sell liquor for a wealthy profit. The repeal of the 18th amendment or also known as the 21st amendment reallowed alcohol in the US. During this Post-Prohibition era states had various ages of the legal drinking age, most were set at 21 but some were lower. However by the late 1960s most states had lowered their drinking age to 18, which led to increase in alcohol related car accidents. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) 60% of all traffic fatalities were related back to alcohol. This public health crisis led to Ronald Reagan passing the Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984. Now in present day America this law is still in use, but certain groups are looking to debate the possibility to lowering the legal drinking age. In this paper we will look at the Amethyst Initiative, the people who are for this initiative and why, also the people who are against this initiative and …show more content…
Groups and organizations that are against it are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) which has been around since the temperance movement. For MADD the main argument against this initiative is that lowering the drinking age will increase the amount of fatal car crashes. The national president of MADD Laura Dean-Mooney believes that the drinking age of 21 is successful and is working by stating, "There 's 48 highly-backed studies to back the fact that the law does work. It saved over 1,000 young people 's lives every year for the last 24 years. Why would we go back? We tried this in the '70s and '80s. It simply did not work then; alcohol-related fatalities went up in that age group.” The reduction in drunk driving crashes has been a key point to the argument of keeping the age at 21. According to the NIH since the Minimum Age Drinking Act, drunk driving accidents have dropped by 50%, with the greatest reduction being in the 16-20 year old age
This era in US history is popular for the terms and names like smuggling, bootlegging, and Al Capone. During this time period people would illegally make, sneak in, and sell liquor for a wealthy profit. The repeal of the 18th amendment or also known as the 21st amendment reallowed alcohol in the US. During this Post-Prohibition era states had various ages of the legal drinking age, most were set at 21 but some were lower. However by the late 1960s most states had lowered their drinking age to 18, which led to increase in alcohol related car accidents. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) 60% of all traffic fatalities were related back to alcohol. This public health crisis led to Ronald Reagan passing the Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984. Now in present day America this law is still in use, but certain groups are looking to debate the possibility to lowering the legal drinking age. In this paper we will look at the Amethyst Initiative, the people who are for this initiative and why, also the people who are against this initiative and …show more content…
Groups and organizations that are against it are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) which has been around since the temperance movement. For MADD the main argument against this initiative is that lowering the drinking age will increase the amount of fatal car crashes. The national president of MADD Laura Dean-Mooney believes that the drinking age of 21 is successful and is working by stating, "There 's 48 highly-backed studies to back the fact that the law does work. It saved over 1,000 young people 's lives every year for the last 24 years. Why would we go back? We tried this in the '70s and '80s. It simply did not work then; alcohol-related fatalities went up in that age group.” The reduction in drunk driving crashes has been a key point to the argument of keeping the age at 21. According to the NIH since the Minimum Age Drinking Act, drunk driving accidents have dropped by 50%, with the greatest reduction being in the 16-20 year old age