The Drinking Age Should NOT Be Lowered

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Recommended: Argument for lowering the drinking age to 18

Several organizations exist that are either in support of or opposed to lowering the minimum legal drinking age. Choose Responsibility, a group founded by John McCardell, proposes that upon completion of a 40 hour course to educate young people about alcohol, 18, 19, and 20 year old people should be licensed to drink. The Amethyst Initiative, part of Choose Responsibility, is a petition to Congress to rethink the minimum legal drinking age. Several college leaders have signed this petition in the belief that lowering the minimum legal drinking age will reduce binge drinking on college campuses. The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety (IIHS) has performed research on the results of states lowering, then raising, their minimum legal drinking ages and found that the minimum legal drinking age and alcohol related deaths and injuries have an inverse relationship: deaths and injuries decrease when the minimum legal drinking age increases. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) believes that 21 as the minimum legal drinking age curbs drunk driving and reduces deaths among youth. The American Medical Association (AMA), along with MADD, argues that the age limit of 21 has a medical basis. I believe that the minimum legal drinking age should not be lowered to 18. Moving underage drinking into the public is not likely to reduce binge drinking, studies show that a higher minimum legal drinking age results in fewer fatal vehicle crashes, and alcohol has several negative medical effects on young people.

Choose Responsibility is a group college leaders that believe that a drinking age of 18 will reduce binge drinking on college campuses. This organization advocates a 40 hour education course consisting of legal, ethical, health, and safety ...

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....intheknowzone.com/binge/lterm.htm

MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving. (2013). Retrieved 9 24, 2014, from MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving: http://www.madd.org

McCardell, J. (n.d.). Choose Responsibility. Retrieved 9 24, 2014, from Choose Responsibility: http://www.chooseresponsibility.org/

Minimum Legal Drinking Age. (2012). Retrieved 9 24, 2014, from American Medical Association: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/public-health/promoting-healthy-lifestyles/alcohol-other-drug-abuse/facts-about-youth-alcohol/minimum-legal-drinking-age.page

Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age? (n.d.). Retrieved 9 24, 2014, from Drinking Age - ProCon.org: http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=1610

Statistics. (2011). Retrieved 9 24, 2014, from In the Know Zone: http://www.intheknowzone.com/binge/stats.htm

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