Against Lowering the Drinking Age
In the United States, underage drinking has been cited as creating immense problems. It has contributed to numerous unnecessary youth deaths and has been the predecessor to various crimes. However, some argue that it is the illegality attached to alcohol consumption that has led to these occurrences. The latter support lowering the legal age of alcohol consumption, while opponents argue that the health risks involved are too high. Despite the support for lowering the legal drinking age, doing so will bring more danger to an already unruly group of teenagers.
A variety of health concerns are attributed to early alcohol consumption. The earlier an individual starts drinking alcohol, the more like they are to become an alcoholic (Doraiswamy). This in itself brings about the psychological concerns that are attributed to the disease. Alcohol consumers are more likely to get depressed because they can experience a wide variety of mood swings. Individuals who have started drinking during their teenage years report being more psychologically unstable than those that did not start drinking until their 20s; this presents them with a more dangerous type of living (Giaimo). Lowering the legal drinking age will in fact exacerbate an already growing problem.
Consuming alcohol at a young age interferes with the proper brain development of an individual. At the age of 18, teenagers are still developing. Their brain is still molding itself, and introducing alcohol into this process can hinder the proper development of the frontal lobes; this will interfere with organizational and planning skills, as well as with emotion regulation (Doraiswamy). The earlier that this developmental process is interrupted, the higher the risk of chronic impairment to the brain (Giaimo). This is a danger that can be avoided if the legal drinking age were to stay the same.
At the age of 21 young adults are able to more responsibly handle the responsibility of alcohol consumption. The older an individual is, the more mature they are, and are therefore more careful when consuming alcoholic beverages (CBSNews). They will be more likely to drink responsibly,...
The question isn't whether there should be controls, but which controls work best. What has proven around the world to work best is a combination of reasonable laws backed by strong social sanctions. But in the U.S. we treat our emerging adults as infants and get infantile behavior as a result…if adults would learn to temper their patronizing attitudes toward young men and women, more maturity, self-restraint, and social
lower the minimum drinking age. Alcohol is something that damages people's body and their social personality as well. The drink if taken in excess has been adverse effects and increase is the risk of assault and crime. Alcohol is directly linked to increased car crashes and fatalities as well. Due to all these reasons, it has been emphasized that the drinking age should not be lowered. Alcohol Alcohol is something that
This means that alcohol is made accessible to underage persons and in this way, they start consuming alcohol at a young age. It is for this reason that the legal drinking age should not be lowered, but actually increased to reduce the chances of it being made available to those who are underage. Increasing the minimum legal drinking age to at least 25 years, like India, will go a
While many think that if someone is old enough to go to war, one is old enough to drink, they miss the fact that going to war is a voluntary act. No one forces an individual to join any armed force. The decision is one that the individual makes for himself and there is no standing behind him or her forcing him or her to do so. The drinking age
Drinking Age There has been a lot of debate whether the legal drinking age should be lowered or not. The Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984. This law was passed to increase the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. There has been a mixed reaction over this act. There are some people who support it while there are others who oppose it. Opponents of this law believe
U.S. Drinking Age stay at 21 or be lowered to 18? The 26th amendment, on July 1, 1971 was passed which dropped the least age to vote from twenty one to eighteen years old (Madison, 2006). Soon after the amendment was approved twenty nine states all over the nation began bringing down their drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age. This new freedom for young adults did not
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