What Are The Effects Of Increasing The Drinking Age

Improved Essays
Second, the minimum drinking age of 21 reduces deaths associated with alcohol.
“Underage drinking is a leading contributor to death from injuries, which are the main cause of death for people under age 21” (“Underage Drinking” National Institutes of Health).
“Over 300,000 deaths have been prevented as a result of reductions in alcohol-impaired driving, more than the reduction attributed to increases in the use of safety belts, airbags, motorcycle, and bicycle helmets combined” (“Rebecca (Beckie) Brown, 1940-2012”). Death does not only result when drinking and driving, but alcohol unintentional injuries. Researchers found that “1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle
…show more content…
Certain parts are damaged like certain parts of the brain and damage organs, such as the liver, kidneys, and heart which are vital for living. Next, drinking alcohol is not only dangerous to the human body, but to the drinker’s live and society. The minimum drinking age of 21 helps reduce the number of alcohol-related fatalities that include traffic and deaths. Lastly, young adults who drink are more prone to engage in risky behaviors like binge drinking and sex. The minimum drinking age of 21 results may seem small, but manifests a huge difference over time. Enforcing policies to support the minimum drinking age of 21 work and are effective to keep the number of underage drinkers down. Also, increasing penalties for disobeying the minimum drinking age of 21 and other alcohol use law can help reduce alcohol use. Individual-level interventions like school-based and family-based prevention programs help the youths have the knowledge, motivation, skills, and outlook so that they can resist alcohol. Finally, what people can do is work together and use their voice and engage the government by creating a petition. This will raise awareness of alcohol and the consequences to help the youth. Even though many have tried alcohol, further educating and taking a stand to advocate this issue will not only help reduces the numbers but make this a better America for

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    According to the NIH, Deaths from alcohol have been halved in the age group of sixteen to twenty since the drinking age has been set (National Institutes of Health). When the minimum drinking age got set to twenty-one it dropped the likelihood of drunk driving…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    MLDA To 21

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to Traci L. Toomey, Carolyn Rosenfeld, and Alexander C. Wagenaar in “The Minimum Legal Drinking Age: History, Effectiveness, and Ongoing Debate” from Alcohol Health and Research World, the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) should stay up at 21 to help prevent alcohol-related problems among youth such as, injury and death, second-hand effects, and health issues. Science is and has contributed to the study of the effect of the MLDA laws. After states lowered the MLDA from 21 in the seventies, traffic crashes among teenagers increased greatly, so the government indirectly returned the MLDA to 21. Along with the MLDA, states created drinking policies to further reduce drinking rates concerning teenagers. In correlation with the MLDA being raised, there were notable declines in vehicle crashes and crash fatalities.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lowering the drinking age would encourage those people in all age ranges to seek medical attention for potentially fatal alcoholic injuries without the fear of potential consequences for doing…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For example, the MLDA of 21 is statistically proven to reduce both alcohol related traffic fatalities and crashes. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that MLDA 21 decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for eighteen to twenty-one year olds by 13%.” Also, the minimum legal alcohol intake age of twenty one has saved roughly 27,052 lives from 1975 - 2008 (Toomey, Nelson, and Lenk 1964). Children and young adults are dying daily due to underage drinking, lowering the legal drinking age would only worsen problems. Simply leaving the MLDA at twenty one will continue to make a difference in young people’s lives.…

    • 1803 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The age of underage drinking should be lowered to eighteen years of age in order to combat the social drinking normality of recklessness and alcohol abuse. This may change the perspective of young people from a sinful, pleasureful activity to one that is casual and laid-back. Using the information gathered, by lowering the law to eighteen years the stigma can be less present throughout the most susceptible group. Any alcohol abuse younger than eighteen may be detrimental to the child’s growth. The brain is still developing at younger ages and may cause damage to itself as well as neurocognitive deficits and other physical symptoms (Zeigler et al., 2005)…

    • 1495 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Lowering the drinking age to 18 would cause even more drunk driving. People age 16 to 20 are 17 times more likely to die in a vehicle crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent than when they have not been drinking alcohol. Keeping 21 the minimum legal drinking age has prevented teen drinking and…

    • 1284 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Age doesn’t make a difference in Drinking Under the Influence (DUI) accidents or fatalities of drinking behind the wheel. In fact, there are absolutely no correlations between the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) being 21 in America versus other places, such as Italy, that have a MLDA of 18 and lower. Furthermore, multiple studies taken everywhere have noted that moving the imbibing age to 18 years does not have an impact of deaths relating to alcohol besides DUI’s, such as Alcohol Poisoning. Concluding that if the MLDA was to be moved down to a lower age, we would gradually start to avail the economy with its debt issues only furthermore due to more people of an age group drinking.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lowering The Drinking Age

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There has been an ongoing debate in regards to lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 years old in The United States. Some suggest if we were to consider lowering the drinking age to 18 this could mean young people would have access to alcohol. It is not uncommon for 21 year olds to provide minors or those under 21 with alcoholic beverages. Reducing the drinking age to 18 could possibly result in younger teenagers, even as young as 13 having access to alcohol. Minors find ways to get around the 21-year-old limit and will continue to do so in the future.…

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Although 18 year olds are considered adults, some think that they are still not mature enough to make to correct choices about alcohol. Those who think that keeping the drinking age at a higher minimum are trying to keep the demand for alcohol down and are also trying to keep the roads safer from drunk drivers. People between the ages of 18 and 20 will have just started college for the most part and don’t need alcohol interfering with their studies and their ability to succeed in life. Condoning the drinking of newly formed adults would only cause chaos and cause more fatalities. To MADD the cost of drinking outweighs the benefits since the highest numbers of fatalities in the United States are due to alcohol related deaths.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The drinking age has proved to lower the rates of violent behavior, which is one of the many benefits that come from it. According to research, the drinking age of 21 is a reasonable and effective law because it considers certain factors among youth such as risk taking, maturity lifestyles, and the risk of accidents. Since teenagers are going through things such as peer pressure, new situations, and physical changes, the drinking age has been put to a reasonable age (21) so that violent behavior, such as homicide, rape, suicide, and domestic violence are not prevalent among young people. These results are some that a lower drinking age will be unable to…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Fight for the Drinking Age The drinking age of 21 in the United States has been refuted by many people. However, others want to keep it the same. For one, since the drinking age was set to 21, there has been decreasing levels of alcohol consumption in adults over and under 21 ("Fact"). Another reason is consumption of alcohol can be dangerous, even deadly.…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The number of DUI’s has slowly increased within the past 5 years; this is without changing the drinking age. The government has already had problems within the last 5-7 years about misuse of alcohol, lowering the age would put more increase the problems. According to Tara Watson, “Research has shown that a drinking age of 21 does reduce alcohol use by those under 21, including high school students.” That goes to show that if the law is enforced the right way then we could help minimize underage drinking. The earlier you drink in your life, the earlier you are to have complications from too much alcohol.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved 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
  • Improved Essays

    Abbie Hill Kendra Gallos English III 3/27/18 What is the best way to prevent deaths from drinking and driving? Did you know that drunk driving takes the lives of about 10,000 kids or adults per year? That’s almost 29 people a day.(Drunk Driving 1) It is also surprising to find out most of the people getting into accidents while intoxicated are kids under the age of 21 and not people that are over the age of 21.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In contrast, lowering the alcoholic drinking age from 21 to 18 will irresponsibly allow a greater segment of the population to drink alcohol in bars and nightclubs. Raising the alcoholic drinking age decreases drinking among young people, it promotes fewer dropout rates and protects adverse birth outcomes, and alcohol drug dependence. Truly,raising the alcoholic drinking age is an effective law that protects young people…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays