First let's talk about why the legal drinking age in the United States is 21. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed by Ronald Reagan. He basically made the states raise the legal drinking age to 21 or he would cut the highway funding to their state. At this time many states have varying laws on buying alcohol. Some state it would be 18 for everything, and some states it would be 18 for beer and 21 for hard liquor. It was all up to the independent states to decide what to set it at. In the United States, laws on drinking are much stricter than laws around the world, especially compared to countries like France. Here in the US, the legal age to drink is 21 while in France the legal drinking age is 16 years old. When alcohol is introduced to younger people there is less urge to get drunk. Drinking in public would be monitored by peers, …show more content…
When alcohol is introduced at a younger age, there are less occurrences of alcohol poisoning among teens. According to a recent survey by U.S. News, 6 people die from alcohol poisoning everyday. This is likely due to the fact that teenagers, not being able to drink young, sneak alcohol with the intentions of getting drunk. When the drinking age is lower it is more likely that the parents will teach their teenagers about the dangers of alcohol abuse. A younger drinking age, while in a safe environment, will allow for teens to understand their drinking limits before they reach a more mature age, therefore decreasing the irresponsibility of