Lowering the legal drinking age to 18
Lowering the Legal Drinking Age to 18The legal drinking age in the United States is set at twenty-one years of age. I believe that considering twenty-one as the legal age of maturity is ridiculous. Who is to say that just because an individual is twenty-one means that they are mature enough to consume alcohol in a responsible manner? Changing the legal drinking age to eighteen should be enforced. Eighteen year-old individuals can take on many adult responsibilities, but they do not have the right to consume alcohol. Many feel this is unfair and biased. There is a tremendous controversy over whether to keep the legal drinking age at twenty-one, or to lower it to the legal age of adulthood, 18. Congress passed the National Minimum Purchase Age Act in 1984. This law was passed to encourage each state to change their legal drinking age to twenty-one years of age. The congress believed that if they raised the minimum drinking age that it would save a significant number of lives. They figured that a twenty-one year old person was more mature than the average eighteen year-old. That, in my opinion, was a huge mistake. Just because a person lives to be twenty-one does not determine how mature they are. For exampl
The twenty-one restriction seems out of date in today's society. Many parents of today's teenagers were legally allowed to drink at the age of eighteen. Then, in rebellion, those underage will just find a way around it. If twenty-one is considered so mature, then why is eighteen considered an adult? At the age of eighteen, an individual can vote, serve on a jury, stay out without a curfew, leave home, drive, smoke, buy weapons, engage in financial contracts, fornicate, start a family, be sent to adult prison, join the army, and die for this country. Studies show that there was a thirteen- percent decline in the number of single-vehicle nighttime crashes among eighteen through twenty year-olds after the drinking age was raised to twenty-one. People of all ages get into car accidents. For example, many have fake identification cards, steal alcohol from their parents' liquor cabinets, or even put another person in jeopardy by asking someone whom is twenty-one to illegally purchase the alcohol for the underage drinkers. Learning how to drink in a safe and moderate manner is more important than worrying about the age of the individual. Keeping the age at twenty-one makes it seem as if an eighteen year-old is not a real adult. Since the number twenty-one has no real basis of maturity, the government should have kept the legal drinking age where it was and kept the public educated rather than taking a right away from the adults under the age of twenty-one. The argument against changing the legal drinking age has many issues. That is absurd! Setting the legal age to purchase and consume alcohol is unrealistic in today's way of life. I believe that the arguments that were made as far as the number of car crashes there were after the legal drinking age was raised was merely a coincidence. The United States is one of the few countries with such a prohibitive drinking age.
Common topics in this essay:
Age Act,
Drinking Age,
Spain Portugal,
drinking age,
legal drinking,
legal drinking age,
age twenty-one,
eighteen year-old,
age eighteen,
consume alcohol,
legal age,
National Minimum,
Minimum Purchase,
Purchase Age,
purchase age act,
mature average,
drinking age raised,
changing legal,
alcohol abuse,
minimum purchase age,
drinking age twenty-one,
|