Keeping the Drinking Age

At 21In the United States of America there have been many deaths due to alcohol consumption. if it wasn’t lack for knowledge obtained about alcohol abuse, numerous accidents would/could have been prevented. One of today’s biggest problems that leads in society is drinking under the legal age.In the United States the minimum age required to drink is 21, this policy alone shows how unrealistic expectations and serious unintended consequences evolve. The government is basically stating that reaching twenty-one years of life, one is transformed into a responsible person capable enough to take on the burden that comes with the assurance to consume alcohol.

The issue of underage drinking has become a major problem. Nonetheless underage drinking is not the root to all unfortunate accidents related to alcohol consumption.In reality the real problem comes from the unsafe habits and the base of knowledge when referred to underage drinking, meaning driving while under the influence, or any machinery in that case. When people turn eighteen they are finally considered an adult. Joining the army, voting, buying cigarettes or other substances, get a tattoo or even face sentences in adult jail. Although everyone would consider that person to be an fully fledged adult, they are still not old enough to buy or consume alcohol. Seems unusual to witness such contradictions. It’s understood that an individual can be responsible enough to live on their own, make their own money, and even pay their own bills, but still not capable or considered old enough to purchase or consume any alcoholic beverage. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would also help avert the relative crimes and personal injuries that can be caused by abusing alcohol .Although you have many states that are trying to get the drinking age lowered, there are many reasons, programs and national statistics of what can happen that’s keeping the drinking set at 21. For instance, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says laws setting the drinking age at 21 have cut traffic fatalities involving drivers by 13 percent” (Keen). They hope that by keeping the legal drinking age at 21, people should be mature enough at this point to realize and make smart decisions and not drink under the influence. Most of the time drinking injuries and fatalities are cause by drinking and driving, giving congress the opposition to vote on this policy, in !984 the National Minimum Drinking Act was passed establishing the legal age to be 18. It later came into perspective that too many DUI’s were occurring, and the NMDA initiated that states would have surrender their highway taxes in order to keep the drinking age at 18, no-one complied, and it was later changed to 21(Ron and Wang, 2018). Until then a controversy has never ceased to disappoint people and the argument carries on still. should we lower the drinking age to 18 or keep it at 21? Sadly, alcohol today is a top contender in causing deaths in the United States. will lowering the drinking age down to eighteen become a pro or con.First lowering the drinking age to eighteen would not only raise the consumption of alcohol. A study was published by Christopher Carpenter and Carlos Dobkin, in a journal taken from theAmerican Economic Association website. It examined the effect a lower legal drinkingage would have on the consumption of alcohol. The study shows that lowering thedrinking age would “increase drinking participation by 6.1 percent, heavy episodicdrinking by 3.4 percent and instances of past month drinking by 17.4 percent.” (Carpenterand Dobkin 148). Secondly domestic violence has already caused an uproar, lowering the drinking age to 18 will not only increase the domestic violence rates, but it will also increase the amount of teen criminals. study shows that approximately 80,000 deaths each year in the United States are caused directly or indirectly to attribute consumption in relations to domestic violence. (CDC, 2008; Rehm et al., 2009). Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is caused mainly through age groups of 20-40 with approximately 35% of women and 28% of men in the United States experience rape, physical violence, stalking, or death. (Black et al., 2011).being that age limit ranges from 20-40, lowering that drinking age to amend teens of 18, would only increase the rate. most individuals don’t mature until the age 21, giving those between the ages of 18-20 the immature decision-making opportunities.People believe that if we lower the drinking age the economy would benefit froman increase in consumer surplus. They think more money would be made and that it willboost our economy. Studies done by Carpenter and Dobkin prove that this argument isfalse. First of all, lowering the drinking age increases the chances of death to eight peoplein everyone hundred thousand. It is not possible to put a price on human lives, eachindividual person is worth much more than money. the lack of education that is being delivered to individuals is disappointing to know that the information is there but not fully taught. not only that but our economy would suffer for the most part through deaths, for example driving under the influence would most likely raise taxes for tax payers to build for a safer environment. With a drinking age of eighteen the increase of the amount of money made from the purchase of alcohol will be outweighed by the other negative costs it will lead too. Secondly the current laws today, does the age when older individuals start drinking make sense. Honestly there are numerous ways the government changed the legal age of drinking from 18-21. Changing the drinking age has it really slowed down the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol related crimes and traffic accidents have gone down in recent years, but that has nothing to do with raising the legal drinking school. Studies show that although drivers under the age of 21 drink more they also drive less; an average teen will not receive a standardized license until their early 20’s.the government looks at the underage drinking as fatalities, causing approximately 5,000people under the age 21 die in results too DUI, and homicides. Reducing the drinking age considerably not have much of an affect as teens still consume liquor illegally. The government see this as a reactance theory hoping that raising it would be the main solution to all the underage drinking, but in fact will continue to be a illogical controversy.

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