Persuasive Essay: Lowering The Drinking Age
Lowering the Drinking Age Since the drinking age has been raised to twenty-one in 1984, there has been alarming evidence that illegal drinking still occurs between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four, more prominently on college campuses. Although there are a plethora of reasons as to why the drinking age has been raised, there are extensively fundamental reasons as to why the drinking age needs to be lowered in an effort to halt the rising illegal drinking rate. These reasons include teaching responsibility, diminishing the rebellious aspect of drinking, and the lack of enforcement of the law to stop underage drinking. First and foremost, the lowering of the drinking age has the extremely high potential of teaching greater responsibility
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Although many people are not advocates of lowering the drinking age, the changing of this law would further “encourage society to educate teens about alcohol rather than sweeping it under the rug”, and by doing so young adults would be more cognizant of their actions and the ramifications …show more content…
Teens and young adults see alcohol as a symbol of rebellion and adulthood, thus they treat drinking alcohol irresponsibly because they do not fully understand its aftermath. Because alcohol has a rebellious and adult-like appeal(Engs), a large amount of people under the age of twenty-one regularly consume alcohol for these various reasons, thus if the drinking age was lowered, the people participating in underage drinking to conduct an act of rebellion, would have no reason to do so anymore. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “about 8.7 million people ages 12-20 reported drinking alcohol in the past month” (NIH), signifying that a staggering amount of people under the age of 21 are regularly consuming alcohol. This number shows that illegal drinking is happening regardless of the law, due to many different circumstances. If the age limit for drinking was not a factor, less people would feel the need to drink in order to indulge on the “forbidden fruit”
Although many people are not advocates of lowering the drinking age, the changing of this law would further “encourage society to educate teens about alcohol rather than sweeping it under the rug”, and by doing so young adults would be more cognizant of their actions and the ramifications …show more content…
Teens and young adults see alcohol as a symbol of rebellion and adulthood, thus they treat drinking alcohol irresponsibly because they do not fully understand its aftermath. Because alcohol has a rebellious and adult-like appeal(Engs), a large amount of people under the age of twenty-one regularly consume alcohol for these various reasons, thus if the drinking age was lowered, the people participating in underage drinking to conduct an act of rebellion, would have no reason to do so anymore. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “about 8.7 million people ages 12-20 reported drinking alcohol in the past month” (NIH), signifying that a staggering amount of people under the age of 21 are regularly consuming alcohol. This number shows that illegal drinking is happening regardless of the law, due to many different circumstances. If the age limit for drinking was not a factor, less people would feel the need to drink in order to indulge on the “forbidden fruit”