Lowering The Drinking Age Essay

“Should the drinking age be lowered?” has been debating for years. The history of the minimum legal age to drink alcohol can be traced all the way back to the end of Prohibition in 1933. Lawmakers at that time made the youngest age to consume alcohol to be 21. However, it had changed over the years. Between 1970 and 1975, 29 states lowered the minimum legal drinking age to either 18, 19 or 20. It was due to the lowered required voting age from 21 to 18. When many scientific studies showed that the increasing traffic accidents and fatalities was due to people drinking at the age of 18 and 19 between 1979 and 1983, many of the states that had lowered the drinking age changed it back to 21. In 1984, all the changes had come to unification. The congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The act punished every state that did not rise the minimum legal drinking age back up to 21. As a result, the legal drinking age has stood at 21 since that law was enacted. Since then, scholars have been arguing to lower the drinking age again.
People who think the drinking age should be lowered are because of three facts. Under the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, fewer young adults drink, but when they do drink they tend to drink more, which lead to a more serious problem - binge drinking. Furthermore, people can vote, adopt children, sign up for Iraq or become a commercial pilot at 18. Therefore, it is double standard to set the drinking age at 21. Another point is that kids are going to drink regardless of its legality. It is better to lower the drinking age so they can do it legally and parents can reach to them more easily. On the other hand, some people think the government should not lower the drinking age becau...

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...ring the legal drinking age would cause more car accident among young adults. Majority of the population require a personal care to transport. Most of the American kids learn how to drive at around the age of 16. Whether the legal drinking age is 18 or 21, alcohol-related traffic fatalities are a big issue in the states. In 2010, alcohol-impaired driving crashes killed 10,228 people, accounting for 31% of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. What would it be when more young people are going to drink after lowering the legal drinking age? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2,121 people in 2006 ages 16 to 20 died in alcohol-related fatalities on U.S. roads, but in 1984, the figure was 4,612. By the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimation, about 800 lives are saved a year when raising the drinking age to 21.