The legal drinking age in the United States is currently twenty-one, since 1984 when congress passed the national minimum purchase age act. That law was passed to encourage each state to change their legal drinking age to twenty-one years of age. This was caused by the national mood toward drunk driving and the high number of deaths in drunken accidents. The government threatened each state to cut off highway grants and funds if they did not comply with the act. Congress thought that a twenty-one year old was more mature than the average eighteen year old. If the twenty-one year old is more mature to be faced with big responsibilities than an eighteen year old then why is eighteen considered an adult? The legal drinking age of twenty-one saves more lives because of fewer drunk driving accidents than if it were eighteen is the major argument to this point but there are other factors that have a part in lower fatal crashes than just the raise in the legal purchasing age or the decrease per capita consumption.
Other factors like education concerning drunk driving, designated driver programs, better use of seat belts and air bags, safer automobiles, lowered speed limits, and free transportation to and from drinking establishments are also a big percentage due to the decrease. The legal drinking age for buying alcoholic beverages and consuming them in the United States should be lowered from 21 to 18 years of age. Reasons for this are because of the problems that have arisen from it, the rights that are given to an eighteen year old are by far, more responsible than drinking an alcoholic beverage, and it would stop leaving the problem up to the law enforcement and judicial courts and would leave it to the parents to teach and show the teenagers how to drink safely, responsibly and moderately. First, it is necessary to question this law. Why is the legal age to drink and buy alcohol twenty-one years of age? Why isn’t an eighteen-year-old allowed to drink a beer but is allowed to be faced with the same responsibilities as a twenty-one year old. If an eighteen-year-old can vote for his or her government, risk their lives to fight for their country, drive cars, fly planes, get married, pay taxes, receive credit, smoke tobacco, be convicted as an adult in court, serve in a jury, take out loans, play the lottery, and live on their own then why wouldn’t they be responsible enough to drink a beverage that contains alcohol in it? No one can say that a twenty-one year-old is more mature than an eighteen year-old, because every person is different when it comes to maturity.
The Term Paper on Legal Drinking Age
... alcohol consumed by eighteen to twenty years-olds is consumed when the person is involved in heavy drinking. Having the legal drinking age of twenty-one forces young ... is people from the age of twenty-one or older or eighteen or older. In changing the minimum legal drinking age to eighteen, the lawmakers would be ...
Everyone knows an eighteen year-old that is more mature than a twenty-one year-old and vise versa. So what is so magical about a persons twenty-first birthday that makes them so much more mature and educated in alcohol. The drinking age used to be eighteen in some states. Most parents of today’s teenagers were allowed to drink when they were eighteen. Today’s teenagers are faced with more responsibility and are treated more like adults than their parents were. This leads to say that the current law is out of date and the age for this law is un rightfully.
