In the United States, the legal drinking age is 21 years as prescribed by the laws. However, the individual states are allowed to set their own legal drinking age. Some of the states have lowered the drinking age to 18 years. However, most of the states have maintained that the legal drinking age should remain to be 21 years. Looking at the neighboring countries and the developed countries like United States, the legal drinking age is 18. This is for countries like United Kingdom, France, Australia, Germany and china. Research has shown that 78 percent of the people in the United States support the idea that the drinking age should be set at the age of 21 years. I personally do not agree with this and this research paper is intended to show that it is good that the drinking age be set at 18 years (Peck, 178).
An individual becomes an adult at the age of eighteen years. At this age, individuals have the right to buy cigarettes, pay taxes and when they commit any criminal offence, they are put in prisons instead of the juvenile centers where other children are detained. If these people do not enjoy any right of a child at the age of eighteen, then it is reasonable that they are given a chance to consume alcohol if they wish to do so (Moore, 176).
At the age of majority, an individual can be employed in the armed forces. This means that such an individual can be required to fight in wars in case the United States starts fighting with another country. Many of the people who argue that the drinking age should be limited to 21 years support their claims by saying that at the age of eighteen, drinking is likely to endanger the health of the youths. If these people are really concerned about the safety of the youths, then they would insist that these youths should not go to fight in wars. If war endangers the life of individuals, alcohol does the same and the government cannot just limit the drinking age only if they are so much concerned about the safety of the youths (Peck, 214).
The effects of the current age limit are that the youths under the age of 21 drinks up to too late. This is to ensure that they reach at home too late when their parents are already asleep. This is because they know that they are not allowed to drink at their age. During this time, they drive home too late when already too drunk. The chances are that they can cause accidents as they travel to their homes. There are chances that they can be attacked by criminals at these late hours of the night. If the drinking age is lowered, these youths will be driving home early when not too drunk. Their safety will be guaranteed due to this (Moore, 157).
Raising the drinking age does not stop the youths from drinking. What happens is that they find avenues where they can drink without being identified. These areas are very insecure for these young people. Another thing is that these people end up taking dangerous drinks in these illegal areas. It is obvious that setting the age limit at 21 years endanger the lives of young people. First, they drink some drinks that are illegal and dangerous to their health. This can cause their death. Second, they drink in places where there is no security and crimes can happen in these scenes. If the drinking age is lowered, these youths will be able to drink under supervision and therefore they will drink the legalized drinks only and at a safe place.
It is true that drinking can cause many road accidents. However, increasing the drinking age does not solve the problem. Studies have shown that at the early ages of drinking, many people cause accidents. The people between the age of 21 and 24 cause many accidents when drunk. If the age is lowered to 18, many accidents will be caused by people aged between 18 and 20 years old. After the age of 20, an individual will be less likely to cause accidents when drunk. It is therefore important to lower the drinking age so that by the time an individual is 21 years old, he/she is not likely to cause accidents when drunk.
In developed countries where the drinking is 18 years, it has been realized that all drunken people cause accidents at the same rate. Therefore it is not true to argue that it is only those below the age of 21 who cause accidents. Every drunk individual whether an adult or below the age of 21 has equal chances of causing accidents. The government should put in place measures to ensure safety in the roads when drunk instead of just discriminating the adults. If strict laws are made regulating driving when drunk, then there will be no cases of road accidents.
It has been realized that young people will always do something that they have been warned against. They enjoy breaking the law. This means that these youths will drink just because they know that they are not allowed to do so to see what can happen. If the age is lowered to 18, the effects will be that the youths will see drinking as a normal thing like any other. They will feel no urge to do this forbidden activity reserved for the adults. In this case, it can be argued that lowering the drinking age can lower the chances of drinking alcohol among some youths (Moore, 187).
The youths who have not attained the age of majority use other means to ensure that they are able to drink alcohol. One of the methods is by acquiring fake identification cards. They try by all means to fake their documents to show that they are adults. This has dangerous effects to the security of the United States. There are many immigrants in the region and terrorist activities have also increased. It is important to consider having less fake identification documents so that the security concerns of the United States can be addressed. Lowering the drinking age will reduce the need of faking documents and terrorists will be easily recognized.
Drinking is taken to be a leisure activity. The youths at the age of 18 also have the right to have leisure. As far as the youths are allowed to have other forms of leisure, then they should also be allowed to enjoy the drinking activity.
There are arguments that the youths are likely to become criminals, commit suicide and engage in other unethical issues when drunk. Due to this, studies have been carried to prove this. The results have however shown that drinking among the youths does not in any way increase crimes among these youths or increase unethical practices among the youths. Therefore the claims in support of increasing the drinking age have not been statistically tested and should not be relied upon when making the decision.
The youths below the age of 21 who get injuries after they have drunk alcohol fail to go to hospitals. This is because they fear being arrested. Therefore these youths suffer from dangerous effects of the injuries. It is important to lower the drinking age so that when these youths get any injuries related to alcohol consumption, they have the courage to go to health centers to seek medical treatment (Douglas, 283). Otherwise, this law will be endangering the lives of many youths who get injured after they have taken alcohol
The federal government just imposed the law instead of allowing the state government to come up with laws that will protect the youths from dangerous consequences of alcoholism. The federal government should delegate the responsibility to the state government so that these states can put in place laws that will consider the demographic characteristics of the states. This will ensure that youths enjoy drinking if they are fit to do so.
If the law is passed to lower the drinking age, the number of people who will be in bars, restaurants and other legal drinking areas will increase. The effects are that the government will be able to collect more revenue from the sale of alcohol which can be used for development purposes of the United States. However, if the age is not dropped, many people will drink in illegal areas where the government will not be able to collect taxes from (Douglas, 319). This will be loss of government revenue that could have been utilized for the benefit of the society.
There are much other security issues that the armed forces in the United States are supposed to be addressing. However, a greater proportion of these security personnel waste a lot of time trying to arrest the drunken people under the age of 21. Many resources are also used in the arrest of individuals under the age of 21 (Bonnie, 98). These resources and time could be used for other activities that are beneficial for the people of the United States. If the drinking age is lowered, the security personnel in the United States will concentrate on more advantageous activities other than arresting young people. This will greatly benefit the society at large.
Many of university and college students engage in drinking. Studies have shown that regardless of the law being in place, many of these youths have managed to drink from unknown sources. If the drinking age is lowered to 18, the administration of the colleges and universities will be able to monitor drinking among the students. This will ensure that drinking does not lead to accidents since there is control on the amounts of alcohol individuals take (Hanson, 139). Drinking from unknown sources will reduce and since these students drink from legal places, it is possible to ensure that what these youths drink is safe to their health.
Studies have shown that drinking at a young age reduces drinking at old ages. When an individual starts drinking at an old age, there are chances that drinking is likely to cause greater harm to such a person. It has been seen that when the drinking age is lowered, the number of individuals who drink continue to reduce as people grow up. This is because when people start drinking early, they get to know the negative effects that drinking has to them. They are therefore able to make decision to stop the habit in their future. However, those who start drinking at their old age have lower chances of stopping the habit (Bonnie, 108). It is important to let people know the dangers associated with drinking by themselves instead of just making them not drink without any reason. When people make decisions by themselves without being pressed, they are able to follow what they have decided strictly.
Many people in the colleges and the universities are below the age of 21. They complete their education around the age of 21 when they are not allowed to drink. One of the aims of the administration is to produce workers who know how to drink responsibly. The government has denied the school administration the right to do this and the effects are that these youngsters may be adversely affected if they start drinking at the age of 21 (Hanson, 145). They do not know responsible drinking at this age and this mostly affects their professional lives.
Lowering the drinking age to 18 will enable the American youths to learn to make their own decisions by themselves. They will not see alcohol drinking as a taboo but instead, they will learn by themselves why drinking is harmful. A cigarette is a drug like alcohol but there is no limit on its use. When at the age of 18, one can buy and use cigarettes. However, not all youths have ended up using the drug. They make their own decisions on whether to use or not to use the drug. The government should help the youths make their own independent decisions instead of imposing on them what they should do.
Many college students conduct their ceremonies such as birthdays and graduation ceremonies even though they are still young. In these ceremonies, they take alcohol as part of their leisure. However, it has been observed that the policemen have ended up arresting these students and they end up wasting their time in jail. This affects the academic performance of these students since it wastes their time. It would be reasonable if these students are allowed to celebrate and then continue with their other activities at school. This will ensure that these students do not waste their time in jail
It can be concluded that alcoholism in general is dangerous to the lives of people. However, it is believed to be part of leisure and therefore there is no need of discriminating the people below the age of 21 as far as they have attained the age of majority. This would be unfair considering that this category of individuals have a right to make their own decisions. Many developed countries have lowered their drinking age to 18 and there are no much negative effects due to such legislations. It has been observed that there are many benefits that will be realized if the age is lowered to 18. Therefore it can be concluded that it is reasonable to lower drinking age to 18 years old
Works cited.
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