My name is Austin Gansert. I am a high school student at Woodbridge High School in Irvine, CA. I am writing you today to talk about a very controversial topic: the legal drinking age. I believe that there are many benefits to having a lower drinking age of 18, rather than the current drinking age of 21. There are many benefits to having a lowered drinking age, which I will explain in this letter. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), about 1 in 10 teens in high school drink and drive. This is a lot. The CDC also states that young drivers are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol level of .08 or above compared to when they haven’t been drinking; however, there is still some good news. Teen drinking …show more content…
Frat parties, for example, serve booze, often, if not always, without the supervision of a responsible adult (aka an adult over the age of 21). Lowering the drinking age to 18 can be beneficial in that responsible drinking can be taught before the student turns 21. My favorite analogy, by Huffington Post writer, Elizabeth Glass Geltman, says, “We don’t have students teach each other how to drive, why is alcohol different?” In her article on Huffington Post, she talks about her college experience in the 70s and early 80s, where the legal drinking age in the US was 18. She talks about how drinking was legal for most students in her senior year of high school and in college, and that beer was commonly served at dances, proms, graduation events, etc. where there were parents and teachers present. She also talks about how in her days, learning to drink socially and responsibly was part of her college experience, and it was at least partially supervised. They had pubs on campus, and the bartender was paid by the school to serve, and he was also responsible to cut off students who are overdoing it. Supervised drinking on college campuses was done with faculty and staff, who could model the appropriate alcohol-related …show more content…
But while it has succeeded in that, it is also believed that tougher rules, such as DUI rules and seatbelt safety rules have also played a part in this decrease. However, this higher drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking, its only “driven it underground,” Gabrielle Glaser states in her NY Times article. It has been driven underground to the riskiest settings, high school parties and frat parties that are unsupervised. This age raise segregates the drinking away from adults that can model moderation in drinking. If an 18-year-old high school senior is shown by his/her parent(s) how to drink responsibly and in moderation, I believe that it would greatly help in reducing the chance of making bad decisions by overdoing it, such as driving while drinking. Teaching children to drink safely starting while they’re 18 and living with their parents will help them develop healthy habits which will stick with them, helping them drink
The current alcohol laws both statewide and nationwide, prove unsuccessful and a more efficient way to handle the situation is to educate teens about alcohol to influence them to make wise
They 're surrounded by this culture, and everyday are impacted by it, through their students. Ruth C. Engs, a professor at Indiana University, says that in controlled environments with a lower drinking age, teens will begin to learn responsible and sensible drinking habits. Without re-learning their pressure drinking habits, teens start to hide their drinking. This causes problems, especially when tough situations arrive. Teens aren 't able to explain their situation
Underage drinking has become normal and something tenagers look forward to when they enter collage. This is partly because consciously partaking in illegal activities gets their adrenaline running and they like the thrill they get when breaking the law. If it would be legal for 18 year olds to consume alcohol, it would be less exhilarating for students to drink since they wouldn’t have to break the law and they would drink more responsibly. The ultimate goal of having the minimum legal drinking age at 21 is to protect teens from the harmful effects of alcohol, but it is causing the opposite effect because it encourages them to binge drink when they get the chance since alcohol is not easily accessible for them. Binge drinking is very harmful and can lead to death in some scenarios, but moderate consumption can be healthy for the body and the mind.
This is why there are different limits in order to drink alcohol. Thinking about lowering the age is a bad choice to consider making. The United States shouldn’t allow this to happen to society. Lawmakers should not make eighteen the legal drinking
“ Though the per capita consumption of alcohol in France, Spain and Portugal is higher than in the United States, the rate of alcoholism and alcohol abuse is lower. A glass of wine at dinner is normal practice,” she says. “Banning drinking by young people marks it a badge of adulthood--a tantalizing forbidden fruit” (Whalen). She stresses the fact that if teenagers are taught early on, they will be well educated in knowing the dangers of violently drinking.
Keeping the legal drinking age the same is doing nothing to help this country or the people in it, more people will die or be seriously injured because of alcohol if we do nothing to promote responsible drinking. This paper might not make a difference in the fight to lower the MLDA, or treat the young adults in this country like true adults, but you
Nearly everybody can concur that liquor ought not be given or permitted to youngsters or youthful grown-ups under a particular age. Liquor is a substance that is extremely hazardous and on the off chance that you utilized erroneously or youthfully the outcomes can be extraordinary risk to the clients or the ones around them. The point of bringing down the drinking age has been in dialog for a long time now. Roadway passings among adolescents and youthful grown-ups have expanded enormously.. All states started raising the base drinking age once more.
To address this drinking age should not be lowered to 19. Many people in families think that drinking can harm their life. It’s people jobs to take care of your health and live a happy life with families and friends. Many parents take care of their children and evidence is that an average family spent $24,164 for paying for college and kids don’t know that. People of this world it is more important that you can be more efficient that you can be of not drinking.
Lowering the drinking age will also make alcohol less appealing to teens. When something is forbidden it makes it seem like it is more interesting and the desire to obtain it becomes much greaterAs seen by the research conducted, teen drinking is an important issue that should be addressed. From what I 've seen, the best solution and also the most simple solution is lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. This would reduce the number significantly. Notonly would there be a vast number of people that are within that three year but more teens would lose interest in breaking the law as reaching 18 isn 't as long as reaching 21.
Alcohol, especially when consumed by younger individuals, is harmful to one’s body, including possible liver damage, and even brain damage. In most cases, individuals, like young adults, are peer pressured into drinking, or in some cases, grew up around alcohol. The real question is:
Lowering the drinking age: risky or safe? When teenagers turn 18, they are told that they are adults and are sent into the world. They go to college, get a job, marry or join the military. They do grown-up things like vote, pay taxes and become parents, but they can 't go to the bar for a beer.
Lowering the Drinking Age Picture yourself at this amazing party, you are having the time of your life, but you realize that there are so many people trashed and you are the only one that is not as wasted. The neighbors call the police department complaining that there is so much noise happening next door, that they want the police to shut it down or to at least tell them to be quiet. Well imagine your friend answering the door to the police but saying something incredibly stupid. The cops tell you to turn down the music, they really don’t care that you are eighteen and drinking because they know that it is the legal age. You see, most people would disagree that the drinking age should be eighteen because they think that we are still very
Many young people grown up with their family drinking and learn from them in how to be responsible when they drink. I would say
If our country already experienced a lower drinking age and it’s terrifying impact on people’s lives, why would we want to experience it again? The minimum legal drinking age is one of the most researched laws in the United States today. The minimum legal drinking age should stay at the age of 21. There are many different reasons and facts to support the idea of keeping the drinking age the same, which include binge drinking in colleges, alcohol use in other countries, and drunk driving statistics. One of the reasons the United States is looking to lower the drinking age is the problem of binge drinking in college.
Across the country, college students participate in an illegal activity known as underage drinking. The drinking age in America is an ongoing debate of whether it should be kept at 21, or reduced to 18. While some believe lowering the drinking age would make drinking for young kids safer, others presume the opposite. According to Alexis Aguirre, a journalist at the Texas State University Star, “The legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. Once 18, a person is legally considered an adult and should be able to drink.”