Attention Getter: In January 2017 an eighteen year old freshman at Miami University died from acute alcohol intoxication according to the September 24, 2017 Cincinnati Enquirer article by Kate Murphy entitled Miami students start new year with arrest, hospital trips. Tragically, this has not been an isolated incident, as more and more young adults succumb to the effects of binge drinking. (Murphy 1)Underage drinking has become a deadly practice for young adults that may be attributed to the limitations placed on legal drinking for eighteen to twenty-one year olds. Background information: Drinking too much alcohol is indisputably a problem everywhere in the world. In the United States, concerned citizens fought to control alcohol consumption and succeeded in the initiation of Prohibition in 1919. Prohibition, however, only lasted until 1933.(cite?) People were not willing to give up drinking alcohol and Prohibition only made drinking more dangerous because people did so illegally and underground. In the article, Is It Time to Lower The Drinking Age to 18?, Wil Fulton describes how …show more content…
Based on a study by MIT, the human brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty-five (Simpson 1). There is little to no difference in brain development between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, making drinking alcohol at eighteen not harmful. At any age, excessive drinking can be detrimental to your health, but an occasional drink has proven no health concerns. Society also trusts us to perform other activities when our brains are not completely developed. At sixteen you are allowed to drive and at eighteen you are a fully functioning adult. Whether someone is mature or not does not depend on their age. Someone at age fifteen could be more mature than someone who is
Many people have been questioning on whether maturity depends on one’s age. I believe that maturity isn’t dependant on someone’s age because one matures based on things they’ve undergo, and how their environment can be.
According to Center for Disease Control and Protection, about 4,700 people under age twenty one die from injuries involving underage drinking every year. Illegal alcohol consumption has been a major problem with high school students around the nation. Lowering the drinking age from twenty one would result in major consequences for America’s adolescents. By lowering the drinking age, alcohol would be more accessible to those who choose to participate in underage drinking. The desire to drink for teens and young adults between the ages of fourteen and twenty can be caused by peer pressure or an act of rebellion. One beer might not seem like a big deal at the time, but it could lead to a life of addiction and alcoholism.
“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty, death rates, and improve both the economy, and the quality of life for all Americans. These goals were far from achieved. The prohibition amendment of the 1920's was ineffective because it was unenforceable. Instead, it caused various social problems such as: the explosive growth of organized crime, increased liquor consumption, massive murder rates and corruption among city officials. Prohibition also hurt the economy because the government wasn’t collecting taxes on the multi-billion dollar a year industry.
Each year, about 5,000 teens are killed or injured in traffic crashes as a result of underage drinking and about 1,900 are due to car accidents. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation) In the newsletter, safety in numbers by National highway traffic administration and U.S department of transportation “Of all the people who died in motor vehicle crashes during 2012, 31 percent died in crashes involving a drunk driver, and this percentage remains unchanged for the past 10 years” (Vol 1, 2013). Crashes involving alcohol include fatal crashes in which a driver had a BAC of .01 g/ ld. or higher (Underage Drinking Statistics)). Deadly crashes involving alcohol are twice as common in teens compared to people 21 and older. This is because teens’ judgment skills are harmed more by alcohol. Teens who drink not only risk hurting themselves, they risk hurting their friends, family, and even strangers when driving intoxicated. Teens and parents both need a strong reminder that underage drinking is illegal and can have disastrous consequences. According to Health Day News, “one study found that in 2011, 36 percent of U.S. college students said they'd gone binge drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting) within the past two weeks, as compared to 43 percent of college students in 1988. Since 2006, the current law has reduced the rate of drunk driving crashes among young Americans” (Preidt, 2014 and DeJong, 2014). This proves that lives have been saved after the legal drinking age increased. According to an article in Time Magazine called “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?”, “lowering the drinking age to 18 would stop infantilizing college students, but it would probably kill mor...
According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not mature enough to handle it, lowering the drinking age actually teaches responsibility and safety in young adults, maintains consistency in age laws, and diminishes temptation.
PURPOSE: To persuade my audience NOT to drink and drive Every person is accountable for his or her own “right to drink”. Failure to treat this or any “right” responsibly has consequences. The person’s “right” can and should be taken away when the failure to act responsibly endangers others.
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drink among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe, was spreading (“Why Prohibition” 2). Between 1860 and 1880 America's urban population grew from 6 million to more than 14 million people. The mass of this huge increase found itself toiling in factories and sweatshops and living in horrible social conditions; getting drunk was there only highlight in life.
Briar Clay Mrs. Bauch 05-16-16 Persuasive Speech Lowering the Drinking Age to 18 How many of you would like the chance to purchase an alcoholic beverage by the time you turn 18? Today I am going to go over some pros and cons of lowering the drinking age to 18. This is something I believe should be done in Iowa, or even the whole nation. Upon researching this topic I learned that ever since the drinking age was increased to 21 years of age more people have died from drug overdose. Another fact about drug overdose is that it has increased 102% since the increase in the drinking age.
The temperance movement at the time used a minimum drinking age to gradually bring about the ban of alcohol altogether. In 1919 the temperance movement got what they wanted and the 18th Amendment was created banning the sale of alcohol in America. This ultimately failed, resulting in increased gang violence and bootlegging. In 1933, due to a change of public opinion, the ban was lifted with what is called the 21st Amendment. After prohibition, what was left of the temperance movement was to make sure that a minimum drinking age remained.
44% of students who go to college drink alcohol at a binge level or even much greater. This source also says that up to or even more than 30,000 students have to have medical treatment for alcohol poisoning. It also says that from the years of 1999 to 2005 157 students from the age of 18 to 23 drank themselves to death. Once again, they say lowering the age would cause these number to go up
Prohibition in the United States lasted about 14 years from 1920 to 1933. “Prohibition was the period in United States history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was outlawed.” . Intoxicating liquors were beginning to ruin the lives of some Americans and it became banned. “Prohibition, members of the Temperance movement urged, would stop husbands from spending all the family income on alcohol and prevent accidents in the workplace caused by workers who drank during lunch” . Alcohol was beginning to tear families apart and some wanted to finally outlaw all of the alcohol which would make life easier. In the beginning organizations pushed moderation, but after some decades the organizations’ focus’ turned into the idea of complete prohibition . Although the idea of total prohibition was far-fetched it eventually began. The 18th amendment brought about complete prohibition to all of the United States, with this amendment prohibition in the United States was finally established.
As a result of underage drinking, 5,000 adolescents under the age of 21 die annually due to intoxication (taking motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides, and other injuries while intoxicated into consideration) (paragraph 2). Later in life, underage drinkers are more likely to develop alcoholism, poor performance in school, and risky sexual behavior (paragraph 43). Although this research is not opposed to my argument, there is an importance to acknowledging it as proof of dangerous, underage drinking occurring significantly regardless of whether it is illegal. More importantly, this research stems from adolescents drinking without the supervision of adults and in uncontrolled quantities. Since adolescents must wait a long period of time to drink legally, I believe they fear they must take advantage of drinking opportunities by excess drinking and risk of safety due to their restriction to alcohol. Based on this mindset, I believe exposure to alcohol at a younger age in controlled environments would not only decrease underage drinking in large quantities, but injury and death related to intoxication, as
Sage Singleton Alcohol is one of the most dangerous abused substances used through out the world and has been for several of years. It can cause harm to the body and impair judgement. In fact, a high amount of traffic deaths have been caused from alcohol abuse before or during driving. Alcohol is the #1 misused drug in the United States of America, although many people don't consider alcohol to be considered a "drug", it is. Let's go behind the scenes of this major concern of the world today, which has been a major concern for several centuries in the world.
Alcohol is a widely available drug. Some people may use alcohol from time to time, and drink small amounts. Other people may drink frequently, and drink large amounts at a time. People who drink alcohol very often for a long time, and have problems after drinking alcohol, may have what is called an alcohol use disorder. Alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are the two main types of alcohol use disorders: