Preview

There Should Be A Minimum Drinking Age

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
436 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
There Should Be A Minimum Drinking Age
There should be a minimum drinking age

1. Growth
a. Alcohol consumption can interfere with development of the young adult brain's frontal lobes, essential for functions such as emotional regulation, planning, and organization. When alcohol consumption interferes with this early adult brain development, the potential for chronic problems such as greater vulnerability to addiction, dangerous risk-taking behavior, reduced decision-making ability, memory loss, depression, violence, and suicide is greater. http://drinkingage.procon.org/#background b. A research about how alcohol affected adult and adolescent brain. http://www.chooseresponsibility.org/frequently_asked_questions/#raised 2. Safety
a. Traffic
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wrote in its 2008 publication "Traffic Safety Facts" on www.nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov:
"NHTSA estimates that the 21-year-old minimum drinking age laws have reduced traffic fatalities involving drivers 18 to 20 years old by 13 percent and have saved an estimated 27,052 lives [from 1975-2008]." http://drinkingage.procon.org/#background b. Death
Particularly worrisome among adolescents is the high prevalence of binge drinking... Underage drinkers consume, on average, 4 to 5 drinks per occasion about 5 times a month. By comparison, drinkers age 26 and older consume 2 to 3 drinks per occasion, about 9 times a month. Underage drinking is a leading contributor to death from injuries, which are the main cause of death for people under age 21. Each year, approximately 5,000 persons under the age of 21 die from causes related to underage drinking. These deaths include about 1,600 homicides and 300 suicides http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=1610 c. The reason why we firstly have the 21 law
First, we showed that, as documented by other authors, when states raised their drinking ages to 21 in the 1970s and 1980s there were significant decreases in both alcohol consumption and fatalities among 18- to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lowering Drinking Age

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Colorado's Department of the Treasury announced in October of 1997, that Representative Ron Tupa of Boulder was to introduce a bill to legislation for the lowering of the state's drinking age to 18. Many of the local officials there felt that it was a "bad idea which would cost lives" (Miret). According to the article, the Colorado's State Treasurer's office claims that there has been many studies that show how the raising of the drinking age to 21 has "resulted in fewer teen- Cocco 2 age alcohol-related accidents" (Miret). However, other evidence suggests a different story. They are more alcohol-related accidents with people over the age of 21. A study of all 50 states and the District of Columbia found "a positive relationship between the purchase age and single-vehicle fatalities" (Hanson, "The Legal Drinking Age: Science vs. Ideology"). Thus, single-vehicle fatalities were found to be more frequent in those states with high purchase ages. Can anyone really say that as a result of rising the drinking age to 21 that these dilemmas such as accidents, intake, and desire has largely…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The first issue needing to be dealt with is why the drinking age is set at 21. The American Medical Association (AMA) published the article “Facts About Youth and Alcohol,” which gives a brief history of the drinking age in the United States. The article states that after prohibition, the drinking age was set to 21 in most states. However between 1970 and 1975, as the minimum age for freedoms, such as voting, were lowered, 29 states lowered the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) as well (1). Because not all states had a drinking age of 18, many young adults would cross state lines in order to be of legal drinking age, therefore causing a spike in alcohol related accidents among young adults. Because of the accidents advocacy groups, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.), began pressuring states to…

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    When families bring their children out to dinner they teach them restaurant educate, if the legal drinking age was lowered children would not have to hide the fact that they consume alcohol but they can learn drinking educate from their parents. There are also fewer drunk driving traffic accidents and fatalities in many countries with the drinking age of 18. Although the United States increased the drinking age to 21 in 1984, its rate of traffic accidents and fatalities in the 1980s decreased less than that of European countries whose legal drinking ages are lower than…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Overall, any benefit or joy alcohol can bring is minimal compared to the greater harms alcohol causes. Although alcohol is harmful to everyone, alcohol harms adolescents much more than older adults. One's brain does not complete development until the age of 25. This time marks a critical period for neurodevelopment. The mind has not fully formed its critical and rational thinking abilities. [1] Studies show that alcohol is deterrent to the process [2] Not only does alcohol consumption affect the brain, it also affects female maturation and reproduction abilities during adolescents [3]. Not only that, but because of an adolescents inability to rationally think or make good judgments, they are more likely to binge drink or engage in heavy alcohol consumption than any other group[4], an action that has obvious negative health effects include liver and brain problems. Many suicides, homicides, motor vehicle accidents and accidental falls are alcohol related [5]. Homicide suicide and accidents are the three leading causes of death among teens. [6] It is unnecessary that alcohol causes the deaths and harmful effects of hundreds of thousands of…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lowering the Drinking Age

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The United States seems to believe having a high minimum drinking age will keep the alcohol related deaths to a minimum; however, Holt presents predictions and statistics to put into question what really is the best solution to the overwhelming increase of alcohol related deaths in the United States. In the article, Fennell asserts his alternatives to having a minimum drinking age of twenty-one. Fennell begins the article by reliving one morning on his way to a triathlon where a college freshman arrived still experiencing the night before. Fennell became very curious as to how the underage boy obtained the alcohol because when he was an undergraduate and graduate student, the drinking age was eighteen. Fennell now chooses not to drink; not because he became an alcoholic, but because he just does not wish to.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Driving to the Funeral

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Initially, no one can deny that raising the drinking age have saved thousands of lives. As a teen in earlier times and wanting to fit in, while asking my parents if they would buy me a car, my dad said, “Son you want a car, go work for it.” Being the ambitious type, started doing lawn service, and pushing newspapers helped to obtain a car within several weeks. Soon after, as we hung out with the older teens, drinking became one of our past times. At that time the drinking age was 18-years-old, we made sure at least one of us had age to buy alcohol. For example; Knowing then, as this article describes; “The drinking age was raised from 18-21. It’s becoming gospel that this has saved thousands of lives,” (Quindlen). Would this statement have helped us make better choices? Obvious not, this is still happening today.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Underage drinking can cause multiple issues with the body's and brain's development. The brain plays a very important role in everyday life. This causes issues since the brain is not fully developed until a person reaches their early twenties ("Teen Brain."). The brain provides basic functions like picking up a pencil or even telling the body what to do. Alcohol consumption can interfere with development of the young adult brain's frontal lobes, essential for functions such as emotional regulation, planning, and organization ("Drinking Age ProCon.org."). Also, alcohol consumption interferes with this early adult brain development, the potential for chronic problems such as greater…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The US Federal Trade commission educated us about underage drinking by: Alcohol consumption can interfere with development of the young adult brain's frontal lobes, essential for functions such as emotional regulation, planning, and organization. When alcohol consumption interferes with this early adult brain development, the potential for chronic problems such as greater vulnerability to addiction, dangerous risk-taking behavior, reduced decision-making ability, memory loss, depression, violence, and suicide is greater (2010).…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Young adolescences that live in states that allow them to drink at a young age are showing areas of less fatalities overall. That is a sign that the young people are more responsible they older people at age at twenty-one. Individuals that grow up to drinking a at young age will show that they can drive and be very responsible and earned that right to drink and drive. There will be evidence that will back lowering the drinking to eighteen should happen soon.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Accidents can have a huge effect on adolescents and it can likewise be lethal. Minors drinking liquor can make them drink and drive which can bring about a car crash. Underage drinking can expand the rate of auto crashes quickly. Then again, auto collisions are by all account not the only mischances that can influence young people. Different mischances that can be brought on by underage drinking are falling or getting run over. The lopsidedness that liquor has among adolescents can bring about these mishaps to be life undermining. The outcomes from underage drinking can have numerous negative impacts among teenagers and our communities.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcohol is a drink that is a huge part of today’s American society, it’s used to make toasts at weddings and even included in certain religions. However, it has the ability to impair judgment and cause people to be reckless. Therefore, in the United States, there are laws regarding alcohol consumption. The most recent and ongoing controversy regarding drinking is whether the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. Lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen would be an effective and beneficial step to help reduce alcohol-related accidents and deaths, encourage safe drinking activity, and allow those of legal adulthood the opportunity to fully and responsibly make adult decisions.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is a serious risk to the brain, which is still developing until twenty-one. In 2014, over 1.6 million people reported driving while drunk, or under the influence, that were between the ages of twelve and twenty (Underage Drinking). Although young adults tend to drink less frequently than adults, they often binge drink more (Underage Drinking). In fact, over 1.3 million people ages twelve through twenty reported binge drinking (Underage Drinking). Underage drinking is also responsible for more than 4,300 annual deaths, and is linked to 189,000 emergency room visits for people under age twenty-one for injuries and other conditions (Underage Drinking). Underage drinking increases the risk of physical or sexual assault, suicide or homicide, memory problems, the misuse of other drugs, and heavy drinking later on in life (Underage…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age Raised

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Drinking an excessive amount of alcohol can severely affect the development of adolescent brains. Alcohol is particularly harmful to pubescent teens. Research shows that the adolescent brain develops mostly between the ages of 12-24, in this time period if alcohol is absorbed it can harm the brain development. Professor Ian Hickie the executive director of Sydney’s University of Brain and Mental research institute has stated ‘New research in neuro-science tells us that the brain continues to develop right through until the late teenage and early adult period, Particularly in young men it may not reach adult maturity till the mid twenty’s’ in saying all this, raising the drinking age would be an effective way to help to carry out the full development of adolescents and young adults brains. This is just one of the many reasons that the alcohol legal age should be lifted to twenty-one years.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the United Kingdom, only 15.88% of car accidents are related to drunk driving. In stating this, you can’t really say that having a drinking age of 18 reduces the amount of drunk driving accidents. Plus, deaths from drunk driving as a percentage of total driving fatalities have gradually decreased since 1982, two years before MLDA 21 went into effect. Since this decline came across all age groups, it cannot be because of the introduction of MLDA 21. In a 2002 meta-study of the legal drinking age and health and social problems, 72% of the studies found no statistics that related to an increase in suicide and criminal activities by adolescents if the drinking age were to be lowered to eighteen. Raising the drinking age has been ineffective thus…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) has been a popular debate for many years, and as reported by Toomey, Rosenfeld, and Wagenaar in “The Minimum Legal Drinking Age”, it is imperative to keep the age of 21. Alcohol is the main source of numerous problems for teenagers, which would escalate if the MLDA was decreased. The MLDA was lowered between 1970 and 1975 by 29 states, resulting in an increase in dilemmas such as “traffic crashes, drownings, vandalism, assaults, homicides, suicides, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases” (Toomey, Rosenfeld, and Wagenaar 213). When it was raised back to 21, the number of alcohol induced traffic deaths was reduced significantly. Some may argue that introducing alcohol to children at a younger age will help it become less of a toy for teenagers, which is false and subsequently leads to more health problems and dangers for everyone. If the MLDA was to be lowered again, it would make alcohol more accessible to high school and college…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays