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 …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
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 …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