The drinking age in the United States can be considered as a controversial issue because people possess a dubious attitude in legalities of drinking age. In 1980 the minimum age of drinking in the United States was raised from 18 to 21.
The intent was to reduce the consumption rates of alcohols and drunken driving among young adults. Age-21 law was implemented at that time and the sale of alcohol to the underage was strictly prohibited (Wiseto Social Issues).
These laws are strictly implemented but teenagers are continuing to buy alcohol and drink illegally with fake identification cards. The law is implemented in the United States but it hasn’t stopped underage individuals to stop drinking. Researches and many individuals have stressed on the fact that drinking age must be lowered to 18 in the United States. In this paper we will discuss the arguments that are in favor of lowering the age limit from 21 to 18.
Young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments like pubs, official functions, taverns etc. Their legal drinking age must be lowered to 19 or 18 and through controlledenvironmentthe phenomenon of responsible drinking can be taught. Role modeling and educational programs must be initiated and through these programs a sensible drinking behavior can be expected from young adults.
There are many factors like seat belt and air bag usage, educationconcerning drink oriented programs etc that are responsible for driving problems and accidents during driving. Purchase age is not always responsible for driving problems and accidents during driving.
An individual who is 18 years old in America possess the right to marry, the right to vote etc. That is the reason why drinking age must be lowered to 18 because an 18 year old individual is considered to be an adult in United States because 18 is the legal age of adulthood in United States. Dan Levine stresses on the point that an 18 year old individual can serve the military then why he or she cannot drink. Dan Levine states that “ If you can toss a grenade, you should certainly be able to toss back a shot of tequila” (Wiseto Social Issues).
People who are 18 years old must be legally allowed to drink and buy alcohol because this would reduce the element of binge drinking (Wechsler and Wuethrich).
Through this approach teenagers would not break the law and this would indulge them in adult beverage. The legal age of drinking in every country except United States is 18 or younger. Every year millions of dollars are spent on twenty one year old drinking law and this law is promoted and enforced by the government (Kirk) that could be saved.
A Michigan research suggests that in the year 2006, 72. 2% of the twelfth graders were reported to drink alcohol at some point in time in their lives. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse claimed that the 20% of the alcohol revenues come from underage drinking. Similarly, they added that the amount of alcohol consumed individuals of 21 years and above have remained constant for about forty years (Aretha).
In the United States most of the teenagers consume alcohol for the sole purpose of getting drunk. It must be used as a compliment to a meal but teenagers don’t follow this attribute of alcohol. Binge drinking in the United States is getting famous and people are adopting this dangerous habit in which they have unsupervised environments which can be a deadly problem for these young adults.
The standards that are set for drinking in the United States have not stopped teenagers from drinking alcohol. Alcohol misuse in the country shows increasing trends and researchers suggest that out of four nearly one full time medical student nationwide met the medical threshold for substance abuse (Brown).
Many people in the United States believe that lowering the drinking age is not a viable option because it would actually result in drunken driving fatalities. This might be considered as a truth because a huge number of people are killed in United States because of drunk drivers but United States claims that it has the safest roads in the world. Moreover, 69% of the accidents are from individual who are 21 or above (Merino).
