The Legal Drinking Age

Great Essays
Show More
The magical number eighteen is when one is considered an adult along with being eligible to vote, get married, join the military, and even purchase tobacco however an eighteen year old is not allowed to purchase or consume alcohol. Thirty years ago the legal drinking age in America was set at eighteen years old , and things regarding alcohol use were okay back then however the only problem was the casualties drunk driving caused. I believe the legal drinking age is past due and America is educated enough to prevent drunk driving and can guide young eligible drinkers to drink responsibly. Having the legal drinking age set at eighteen is actually a lot more convenient and even harmless to society. Although people naturally think otherwise studies …show more content…
Also, studies show how the human brain is not all the way fully developed until the age twenty-one. This brings up the leading argument for those in favor of the legal drinking age at eighteen which is if twenty-one is the legal drinking age because that 's when the human brain is fully developed then why are eighteen year olds considered old enough to vote, get married, serve the military, and even purchase tobacco and make adult decisions like having kids or living on your own. Those in favor of the legal drinking age set at twenty-one argue that society would be chaotic and destructive if people as young as eighteen are allowed to purchase or consume alcohol, however those against will say that people as young as eighteen and even younger are already exposed to alcohol and are consuming alcohol regardless of the current legal drinking age and there doesn 't seem to be much chaos and …show more content…
I believe the legal drinking age being set at twenty-one is past due and America is a lot more modern and educated enough to have the legal drinking age set at eighteen and functioning accordingly. The topic on drinking and driving is going to happen no matter what age we set the legal drinking age at. America is at a new age and should be able to educate the young to drink responsibly along with supervising the permitted age groups that are eligible to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Alan Greenblallats
    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Alan Greenblallats

    Setting the drinking age to 18 will make 18 year olds feel more comfortable and responsible drinking without having the thought that they are doing something wrong. McCardell, a former president of Middlebury College, says the problem is, “... That underage kids don’t actually consider themselves underage”. (Greenblatt, 13) 18 is the age where people start taking things more responsibly and having to go behind the law to drink, when they can make authoritive decisions, does not help them to be more comfortable. One may defend that 18 is not a good age to start drinking because they will not be responsible with it. “The people who are advocating going down to 18 should ackowledge that they’re willing to risk an extra thousands death per year and double that number of injuries”.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age To 18
    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age To 18

    I really think the drinking age should be lowered to the age of eighteen. If you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense. For three main reasons. One, teenagers are going to drink alcohol anyway so we might as well legalize it. Two, people are allowed to vote and fight for our country in the military yet they aren 't allowed to even drink alcohol.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Legal Drinking Age To 21 Essay
    • 1284 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Legal Drinking Age To 21 Essay

    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
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Should Drinking Age Be Lowered To 18 Essay
    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Should Drinking Age Be Lowered To 18 Essay

    colleges and universities around the united states think that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. they said it should be lowered because they think that outlawing alcohol for 18 year olds is making the problem worse. these colleges and universities say that allowing alcohol consumption at the age of 18 might decrease the death rate from alcohol. If you are over the age of 18 you are considered an adult and have to act like one. If you look at the countries that have the drinking age at 18 then you would see that there is less accidents, less parties, no students are leaving their classes to go get drunk because when it is lowered to 18 than no teenager has to hide it.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    How To Lower The Drinking Age To 18 Essay
    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How To Lower The Drinking Age To 18 Essay

    Imagine being an adult eighteen-year-old that just moved from Puerto Rico, where the age of drinking alcohol was eighteen. As you can imagine, after moving to the United States, he was very confused because now he could no longer have access to alcohol. Many people think that the drinking age of 21 should be lowered to eighteen. Others oppose that idea and think that humans are not of the right maturity to consume alcohol within a reasonable manner. When you reach the age of eighteen, you are now considered an adult in the United States, and adults should have the right to make their own decisions about anything and especially about alcohol consumption.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Voting Age Response Paper
    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Voting Age Response Paper

    If the age when most the people are mature enough is 18 then why the drinking age is 21 may be because that is the age when most of the people get mature enough to handle themselves and make the right decisions about their lives is at least 21. I believe if 18 is a mature age then the drinking age should also be set at 18. 21 is the age when most of the people face “real world” and understand that what decisions they should make.21 years is the age at which, one fervently hopes, some degree of maturity will have set in. 18 is too young for those who break the law to be treated as adults, saying and the brain doesn’t finish developing until the mid-20s and that’s another reason why the voting age should increase. 21 year olds are more mature, more involved in society, and much less distracted than the opposing age group.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Why The Drinking Age Should Remain At 21
    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why The Drinking Age Should Remain At 21

    It has been an ongoing controversy in the United States whether the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen or if it should remain at twenty-one. Underage drinking has been and will continue to be a major controversial issue for many years. The attached article states, the legal drinking age of twenty-one has been in effect in the United States since 1984, however any state is free to lower it, but a ten percent penalty would be applied in its federal funding for transportation. There are advocates that argues the drinking age should be lowered because at eighteen the individual is old enough to vote, and go to war then, such individual should be allowed to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages. However, the drinking age should not be lowered because risks such as drunk driving, violent or destructive behavior, and medical complications.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On Why The Drinking Age Should Be 18
    • 2226 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Essay On Why The Drinking Age Should Be 18

    The human brain is not fully developed until a person is in their early twenties. Setting the drinking age at twenty-five would make sure that the brain is fully developed before alcohol is introduced to the body. Alcohol can alter the addictive part of the human brain. It is easier for younger people whose brain is not fully developed to get addicted to alcohol than it is for someone with a brain that is fully developed. Advertisements for alcoholic beverages are directed more towards the younger crowd of people.…

    • 2226 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Drinking Age Research Paper
    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Drinking Age Research Paper

    The reality is that even with the drinking age being twenty one, most teens under twenty one will still and can still buy or get alcoholic drinks. Most people want what they can’t get and that’s just human nature. If you can possess alcohol at a younger age then that would reduce the probability of you making rash decisions on overdrinking. "When we raise the drinking age to 21, which incidentally is the highest in the world, it makes drinking more attractive to young people," says David J. Hanson, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam. This quote from David J. Hanson explains that very well.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Minimum Drinking Age
    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Minimum Drinking Age

    Drunk driving is a serious issue in today's society, even with the age being 21. So, the age should not be lowered. The National Traffic Highway Administration (NHTSA) states “the 21 minimum drinking age law has saved about 900 lives per year”. If this was to be changed to a lower drinking age, the crash related alcohol rates would increase. Alcohol-related traffic deaths in the United States was 12,998 in 2007, and increasing dramatically as time goes on.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Drinking Age Should Be Lowered
    • 2148 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Drinking Age Should Be Lowered

    Full maturity is not yet reached at 18 years of age, instead, it is more likely to reach its highest at age 25 ("Brain Maturity Extends Well Beyond Teen Years"). Lowering the legal drinking age would only put more young adults at risk knowing that their lack of maturity is not at its highest. Many believe that the legal age for drinking should be set at 18 because that is the age when people are labeled as legal adults. Responsibilities such as the ability to vote, move out of the house, or enlist in the military are all given to 18 year olds, however, drinking alcohol is not one of those freedoms, and there are many reasons as to why that is the case. For example, scientists have proven that the age in which someone’s decision-making skills reach their highest point is not until age 25 or so.…

    • 2148 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Argumentative Essay: The Legal Drinking Age
    • 1813 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Argumentative Essay: The Legal Drinking Age

    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
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Drinking Age Drinking At 18
    • 1092 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay On Drinking Age Drinking At 18

    In other words, if voting and military sign up is eighteen, then drinking should also be eighteen. Besides at the age of eighteen you are legally an…

    • 1092 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Persuasive Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age
    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Persuasive Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

    Teens can easily obtain alcohol whatever the drinking age may be; which is a simple reason why the drinking age should be lowered. Teens who are eighteen are of legal age to sign up for the military and legally commit murder in order to protect their country, but are banned from having even one little drink of alcohol. Also a teen who is eighteen can vote in any election which is another simple reason why the drinking age mind as well be eighteen because being able to vote and go to war are huge privileges in comparison to drinking…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Drinking Age To 18 Research Paper
    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Drinking Age To 18 Research Paper

    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
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings