Legal Drinking Age
To many, the idea of lowering the drinking age to eighteen is appealing. If you are of age to be drafted and die in war, they argue, you should be allowed to drink alcohol. Proponents of lowering the drinking age point to the fact that in many countries, it is lower than ours or even nonexistent. They say that lowering the drinking age would decrease unsafe activity. However, they fail to acknowledge the facts that disagree with their viewpoint.
Firstly, lowering the drinking age would mean an increase in car crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that since the drinking age was raised in 1984, the number of fatal traffic accidents for those between eighteen and twenty-one has decreased by thirteen percent. Already, drivers in their first four years of driving are three times more likely to crash than any other age group. Allowing drivers with less experience to legally drink would mean more drunk and inexperienced drivers on the roads.
Secondly, drinking alcohol under twenty-five has been …show more content…
A 2010 comparison of drinking rates in European countries and the U.S. found that in countries with a lower drinking age, the amount of binge drinking and intoxication in kids under thirteen was higher. This is due to the ‘trickle-down effect’; the most common source of illegal alcohol to underage drinkers is those between twenty-one and twenty-five. If alcohol is provided legally to those as young as eighteen, those eighteen-year-olds could in turn buy alcohol for their underage friends. Because most eighteen year olds are in high school, this would mean alcohol more easily provided by of-age high schoolers for underage high schoolers. Lowering the legal drinking age means lowering the age at which underage kids have friends with access to alcohol, which means younger kids drinking and more damage to brain development in earlier developmental
To many, the idea of lowering the drinking age to eighteen is appealing. If you are of age to be drafted and die in war, they argue, you should be allowed to drink alcohol. Proponents of lowering the drinking age point to the fact that in many countries, it is lower than ours or even nonexistent. They say that lowering the drinking age would decrease unsafe activity. However, they fail to acknowledge the facts that disagree with their viewpoint.
Firstly, lowering the drinking age would mean an increase in car crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that since the drinking age was raised in 1984, the number of fatal traffic accidents for those between eighteen and twenty-one has decreased by thirteen percent. Already, drivers in their first four years of driving are three times more likely to crash than any other age group. Allowing drivers with less experience to legally drink would mean more drunk and inexperienced drivers on the roads.
Secondly, drinking alcohol under twenty-five has been …show more content…
A 2010 comparison of drinking rates in European countries and the U.S. found that in countries with a lower drinking age, the amount of binge drinking and intoxication in kids under thirteen was higher. This is due to the ‘trickle-down effect’; the most common source of illegal alcohol to underage drinkers is those between twenty-one and twenty-five. If alcohol is provided legally to those as young as eighteen, those eighteen-year-olds could in turn buy alcohol for their underage friends. Because most eighteen year olds are in high school, this would mean alcohol more easily provided by of-age high schoolers for underage high schoolers. Lowering the legal drinking age means lowering the age at which underage kids have friends with access to alcohol, which means younger kids drinking and more damage to brain development in earlier developmental