Persuasive Essay: The Pro Drinking Age

Improved Essays
Shivani Jindal
Mr. Pring
AP U.S. Government 161
The Proper Drinking Age
Alcohol consumption has been a conflict in the United States since the nineteenth century, where Prohibition was proposed, ratified, and then demolished. This debate was over the production, importation, and transportation of alcohol throughout the country. Now, the country’s issue is when the people have the allowance to drink. An American’s twenty-first birthday is an exhilarating time of exhilaration and pleasure. An identification card now holds true value for this twenty-year old, as he or she reminisces at the bar over legal drinks. The United States is one of just four countries in the world, including Mongolia, Indonesia, and Palau, where the legal drinking age is twenty-one (Tardiff). There is currently an ongoing argument over if the age is fit, or if it should be lowered, mostly by the youth. Majority of countries have the drinking age at eighteen, yet these countries are not involved with a high tendency of drunk driving and extreme alcoholism. Congress has stabilized the age at twenty-one for an appropriate reason, simply being that eighteen year olds cannot handle the responsibility. The United States drinking age must be sustained at twenty-one, for alcohol impairs the brain, any age younger does not hold the capacity to take on the responsibility, and will minimize alcohol related accidents. Brain development is crucial for a properly functioning human, for the brain is classified as the powerhouse of the body. According to Dr. Sandra Aamodt, “brain scans show clearly that the brain is not fully finished developing until about age 25” (npr.org). Therefore, the brain is in a fragile and vital state that should be protected from dangers or harm. The consequence of alcohol consumption with a developing brain is more than a hangover. Neuroscientist Susan Tapert has also compared brain scans, however she was differentiating between alcohol drinkers versus non-drinkers. Her team found nerve and tissue damage with teenage drinkers, which defects attention spans, memory, and comprehension (npr.org). Dr. Susan Tapert agrees with Dr. Sandra’s statement, saying that “the adolescent brain is still undergoing several maturational processes that render it more vulnerable to some of the effects of substances”. Even though eighteen year olds are considered adults by law, their brains are considered adolescent, resulting them being unfit to drink alcohol. Ron Dahl, a pediatrician and brain researcher from the University of Pittsburgh, declares that teenagers who experiment with alcohol are “more likely to start negative pathways” (npr.org). Lowering the drinking age would increase brain damage and the likeliness of alcoholism in adolescents, therefore the current age restriction is suitable for the benefit of the youth. The drinking age is mandated to twenty-one year olds for suitable and just reasons.
…show more content…
The younger a person is when he or she begins to drink, the more likely he or she develops an abuse of alcohol (medecinenet.com). The effects of alcohol are difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, and impaired memory (pubs.niaaa.nih.gov). Lowering the drinking age would increase the pool of alcoholics. Eighteen year olds are either dealing with the graduating high school or beginning a college education. Alcohol will interfere with these momentary milestones of life. The freshman retention rate for United States universities is declining over the past decade. The OECD tracked eighteen countries of college dropouts, and the United States finished last in the percentage of students who graduated college who began college (thinkprocess.org). The United States’ retention rate, forty-six percent, fell behind Japan, eighty-nine percent, Slovakia, sixty-three percent, and Poland, sixty-one percent. Giving a freshman the approval of drinking alcohol will distract the student from academics and will corrupt his priorities in school. The majority of twenty-one year olds are in the junior or senior year of college, a time period of more maturity and responsibility. The drinking age is primarily designed to reduce motor vehicle accidents within the United States. There have been approximately one hundred and fifty empirical evaluations since the 1970’s determining the appropriate age of twenty-one (Kranzler& Korsmeyer). There have been some studies that assessed the ages of driving after drinking, and the final conclusion states that: “ While results vary across studies and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A huge debate in the United States is what the minimum drinking age should be. Some believe that it should be eighteen and others believe that it should stay at twenty-one. Some argue that one is legal at eighteen, so people should be able to drink also. A major counter argument that people argue is that other than the United States, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand the drinking age is eighteen (Griggs). People argue that these countries need to catch up with the rest of the world.…

    • 2159 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Persuasive Essay On Teenage Drinking

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited

    However when the teen goes to college is the most important, it's when they are the most vulnerable. It's been estimated that nearly half of all college students and 80 percent of students who live in fraternity houses engage in binge drinking (consuming four or more drinks in a row (Binge 7). College is a place where alcohol is highly available to just about anyone all it takes is some older friends or friends with fake IDs. Students under 21 are actually more likely to be binge drinkers than are older students (Binge…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This fact leads to a bigger desire of the under aged students to consume alcohol and they too got the opportunity to get it from the older students. Lowering the drinking age in this case may not affect the number of people consuming alcohol, but it would affect the amount of alcohol drank by under aged drinkers, because if an eighteen year old does not know when he will be consuming alcohol next time he will be drinking as much as he can that if he gets trouble he gets it for a reason. The Dartmouth study of 2007 shows this relationship, by the fact that in the last month less underage people consumed alcohol in the States, than in Europe, but when they drank they drank more than people in European…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    English In the United States of America at the age of eighteen you are officially an adult and are able to do everything that you are ever legally going to be able to do, except for one, buy or consume alcohol. If an eighteen year old is able to lay their life down for their country then why shouldn’t they be able to drink a beer? The minimum legal drinking age or (MLDA) of twenty one encourages dangerous drinking habits. Over seventy percent of eighteen year olds admit to consuming alcohol in the past month alone.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The current law in America states that a person who is the age of twenty-one or older is legally allowed to consume alcohol. There are many arguments whether this law should be changed to a lower age, preferably eighteen, or raised to an age somewhere around twenty-five. When the hardcore facts concerning this substance are thoroughly examined and thought over, one would see there is only one answer to this dispute. The United States has many problems concerning alcohol and younger people in today’s society; therefore, the legal drinking age must be raised.…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Why not eighteen? Eighteen is an important age; it is when one becomes an adult. It is now legal to vote, buy cigarettes, go to clubs, and do everything else that any adult can do. Hold on, that is not true, purchasing of alcohol is still illegal. Up until 1984, eighteen year olds were able to drink and purchase alcohol legally.…

    • 2226 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also a lot of deaths can be prevented from consuming too much alcohol if the age is lowered because there are laws in some states that prevent anyone who partakes in underage drinking and reports their medical problems to authorities will not be punished. This would motivate underage drinkers to seek aid instead of getting injured or…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Studies show that 73% of college students drink sometime which includes 7.4 drinks a week are consumed by males. The bad thing about this alcohol problem is that students have been reported missing classes and studies show that one fifth of kids have failed an exam due to an alcohol problem. The saddest part about it is that alcohol is involved with 90% sexual assaults on college campuses. Lastly, there has been tons of research saying that alcohol has the ability to affect a teenager's brain more than an adult's brain.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In such countries, teenagers are raised a different way and grow up different then teenagers in the American culture. Drinking in America for young teenagers has always been about partying and having fun. This is why using other countries to compare their drinking age to ours does not make any sense. It has also been an argument that restricting teenagers only leads to binge drinking.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Statistics prove that the legal drinking age should remain at the age of twenty-one in the United States. First, drinking alcohol at a young age can cause the brain to not fully develop properly. People consume alcohol for many different reasons: celebration, depression, anxiety, boredom, and peer pressure. This group of…

    • 1284 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Eighteen is considered adulthood, yet, at this age one is still not treated as such. When one turns eighteen, they become a legal adult, and receive their rights, except the right to consume alcohol legally. The drinking age in the United States is currently set at twenty-one. But, some people believe that twenty-one is too high for the minimum age and, think it should be lower. There are others who feel that twenty-one is a decent, mature age, and lowering it would encourage young to take part in alcohol consumption.…

    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cody Smith Ryan Scariano English 101 November 1, 2014 Minimum Legal Drinking Age There are many things that factor into what the people of today’s society think the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) should be. This research paper is going to, first, give a little background on alcohol and what has happened in the past. It will then continue to provide evidence from either side of the argument as to whether or not the MLDA should be lowered or kept the same. I believe the minimum legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Teandrya Harris 5/7/15 Eng-112 In today’s society the government has a strict policy against underage drinking. On July 17, 1984 The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed by the United States Congress. This act permitted anyone under the age of 21 to purchase or consume any alcohol in all 50 states. This act has had quite an impact of over the years on America’s youth.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The legal drinking age is currently set at twenty-one. In history alcohol has been very present, yet even then they warned of the dangers. When the legal drinking age was set at twenty-one in 1984 it dropped many teen accidents. Mentally teens brains are not fully developed until age twenty-five, and alcohol can pause the brains growth. When teens drink as well they have a tendency to binge drink which then leads to alcohol dependency later on in life.…

    • 1813 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The right to drink should have a higher age of initiation because of the dangers posed by drinking. Many rights in the US are conferred on citizens at age 21 or older. A person cannot legally purchase a handgun, gamble in a casino (in most states), or adopt a child until age 21, rent a car (for most companies) at age 25, or run for President until age 35. Drinking should be similarly restricted due to the responsibility required to self and…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays