Drinking Age Annotated Bibliography

Bibliography: Change the Age to Save the Lives The legal drinking age in the United States is the only age that is above 19 years of age. Everywhere else in the world the age is 19 and under and some countries don’t even have a drinking age. The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because it will help all the problems that come with underage drinking. There is a numerous amount of reasons to change the drinking age to 18 and there are also many opposing thoughts on it as well. Three reasons to lower the drinking age in the US is to stop all of the illegal issues involved with underage drinking, Stop or cut down on the overuse of alcohol and drugs and the changing of adulthood when you turn the age of 18. The use of alcohol promotes many different legal issues in the United States. The first main issue is the usage of fake ID’s. Fake ID’s are very easy to get a hold of in the US. Underage drinkers can just go on the Internet and give their information to a company and then they do the rest. This usually costs anywhere from fifty dollars to three hundred dollars per fake ID. What these kids don’t realize is that they are just giving their personal information to an illegal company in a foreign country. This makes it ten times easier and more likely for identity theft. If we vote to lower the drinking age then there will be no more use for a fake ID since they are allowed to buy the alcohol themselves. The second main issue is the general percentage of underage drinkers. These young adults drinkers start to binge drink in their dorm rooms. They do this so the police do not catch them but if we were to lower the drinking age it could stop the binge drinking and will also lower the percentage of underage drinking. This also benefits them for future purposes and job opportunities. If an underage drinker gets caught with alcohol then they will get an M.I.P. (Minor in Possession) and that stays on your permanent record for the rest of your life. Lowering the drinking age to 18 can lower the percentage of legal issues committed by underage drinkers. By lowering the drinking age to 18 we can stop the overuse of alcohol and prevent diseases in the later years of the young adults life. If the age is lowered to 18 the kids will not be “all over” the alcohol at the sight of it. They do this because they cannot get it themselves so they aren’t sure when they will see it again so they just get to the alcohol and start drinking as much as they can. If we lower the age to 18 then they will be able to buy the alcohol themselves so they don’t have to gulp it as soon as they see it because they know they can get it themselves. This will help to prevent the disease of alcoholism in life later on. We can also stop the act of binge drinking by lowering the drinking age to 18. Most students binge drink because they cannot be seen with alcohol in public with alcohol because they are underage. Instead they just drink a lot in a small amount of time to get drunk before the party so they don’t have to carry around the alcohol this way. If the drinking age is lowered then the student can carry around a beer in public and will not have to indulge in binge drinking. By doing this it will prevent the disease of alcohol poisoning and will also stop many deaths caused by this disease. Binge drinking by students is the number one cause of alcohol poisoning in young adult teens because of the fact that they cannot be seen with alcohol in public. When young teens turn 18 years old then they are considered Adults. Since they are considered adults they are able to make all of the decision including making the choice of going into the service of the military, smoking cigarettes or tobacco and making all of your own decisions and taking responsibility for them. If you are allowed to fight for your country and handle an armed weapon then why can’t you have a beer off base? That’s the other thing doesn’t make sense, if you are 18 and on the base of the military then you can drink but once you are off base you aren’t allowed to have beer. Another decision that adults make is to smoke or not to smoke. If they can make that decision responsibly then they can certainly make the decision whether to drink or not to drink responsibly as well. When you turn 18 you are considered an “adult” in the United States and are able to make all of your own decisions on your own. It is now officially your own life and nobody can stop you of what you want to do…with in reason of course. But my question is why do we stop at drinking? How come we can make all of own choices like joining the military or smoking cigarettes and tobacco or even in some states smoking marijuana but yet we cannot even have a sip of alcohol in public. Therefore, if the drinking age were to be lowered to 18 then it would stop the cause of diseases like alcoholism and alcohol poisoning. It would also lower the percentage of illegal doings if minors were to be caught. When we turn 18 in the United States of America, we are to be considered adults, so let us make all the choices for ourselves instead of hiding one from us until later on in life.