Keeping The Drinking Age To 18 Essay

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Some people may think that raising, or keeping the drinking age the same, will reduce drunk driving accidents and keep people under 21 away from alcohol. This is hardly the case. When the drinking age was raised to 21 in the U.S, drunk driving accidents only lowered 9% and 78% of teens have already had their first drink. Only 26% of high school seniors believe it is wrong for underage teens to drink.

While there are so many things you can legally do at age 18, when you become a legal adult, you can’t drink alcohol. You can do things like get a tattoo, get a piercing, buy lottery tickets, buy cigarettes, join the army, vote, get tried as an adult, go to prison, and get married. However, you cannot drink alcohol. The fact that you can go to prison, vote, and serve the country, but not drink, is a little ridiculous.

45 out of the 50 states have exceptions for drinking under 21. 29 states allow the consumption of alcohol on a private property, with parental consent. Most parents allow it, and don’t care too much that their child is drinking underage. 6 states don’t even require parental consent. 26 states allow underage drinking for religious purposes. 11 states allow underage drinking for educational purposes such as culinary school. Considering that all of these exceptions exist, it would be much easier to lower the age to 18.
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Most of the adults have a lack of confidence to do anything about it because of the lack of education on the risks of underage consumption. Also, the adults that know their kids are drinking don't think it is very wrong to drink underage. In some countries like Mexico, you can obtain alcohol at the age of 12. There are many kids that drink for the thrill of breaking the law. The thrill encourages kids to keep drinking and keep breaking the law. Lowering the drinking age would get rid of the thrill drinking in this age

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