Lowering the Drinking Age Making Youths into Adults Essay

One of the largest questions still up for debate is whether to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. We know that this issue is very mundane to you if you’re from the 70’s and 80’s. We can also recall learning about prohibition in the 1920s. Banning alcohol wasn’t the answer then and it isn’t the answer now. It is time America has lowered the drinking age. The push for this started by the founder of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the increasing awareness of the harms associated with alcohol use among young adults. The United States is one of the only western nations left in which the drinking age is over 18. In most European cultures, drinking is perceived as a social activity. Therefore youths drink as†¦show more content†¦Engs, professor of Applied Health at Indian University, started researching teenage drinking in the late 1970s. She conducted her research for over 20 years, when she wrote her article, à ¢â‚¬Å"Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based upon research† in 1998. According to her research, the decrease in teenage freeway accidents began in 1980, not 1984, when MADD began their push. From 1982 until 1987, around 46% of students reported vomiting after drinking, jumping to over 50% after the age change. Among other changes after 1987, including; cutting class after drinking went from 9% to 12%, missing class due to hang over from 26% to 28%, and lower grades rose from 5% to 7%. Even fighting increased, from 12% to 17%. On September 17th, 2004, Gordon Bailey (â€Å"Gordie†) was found dead at the Chi Psi Fraternity house he was pledging at University of Colorado at Boulder. The night of September 16th, Gordon and 26 other pledges were taken to a nearby park and forced to drink four handles of whiskey and six bottles of wine in 30 minutes. When they accomplished their task they returned to the fraternity house, and Gordon was placed on a couch to à ¢â‚¬Å"sleep it off.† Gordon never woke up. In an interview with 60 Minutes his parents were asked, â€Å"Do you think if the drinking age had been 18 and not 21, would the fraternity brothers have called for help?† Gordons stepmother responded with â€Å" I think so.† His father believed the situation to be â€Å"very preventable.† This is aShow MoreRelatedThe Legal Drinking Age Of The United States1479 Words   |  6 Pages The legal drinking age in the United States has been argued for many decades. The current minimal legal drinking age is twenty-one but some want to lower between eighteen and twenty. The main focus of the research conducted and opinions of people are based on the minimal legal drinking age of eighteen. The research is taken from the 1970s, when the twenty-sixth Amendment was passed in the Constitution (Wagenaar, 206). 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However, despite the current drinking age, 17.5 percent of consumer spending for alcohol in 2013 was under the age of 21. It is estimated that â€Å"90 percent of underage drinking is consumed via binge drinking†¦with alcohol abuse becomi ng more prevalent among the country’s youth† (AguirreRead MoreChanging the Minimun Legal Drinking Age in the United States1745 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Minimum Legal Drinking Age in the United States Over the past twenty years the minimum legal drinking age has been twenty-one in all US states, but that has not stopped citizens of the United Sates from attempting to lower the age. Following the end of prohibition in the United Sates during the Great Depression, all states agreed on a set of twenty-one to be the legal drinking age. For almost forty years there was no change in the drinking age until a decrease in the age for voting occurredRead MoreThe Influence Of Little Timmy On Children Essay1443 Words   |  6 Pageshardly believe that he was already a legal adult, free to do whatever he wanted, within his parent’s limit of course. Being an adult meant that he could do whatever he wanted Timmy thought as he put the finishing touches on his history report due the next day. Being an adult also meant that he could drink like an adult if he wanted as well. With a flash of inspiration, he ran downstairs to beg his parents for the car keys so he could enjoy his first adult beverage. His eighteenth birthday was aboutRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Should Be Lowered From The Age Of 21 Essay980 Words   |  4 Pageshow people who are considered â€Å"adults† cannot even make their own decisions? The drinking age on alcohol is a controversial social and cultural issue in today’s society; all fifty states have a minimum drinking age of 21. The legal drinking age should be lowered from the age of 21 to 18 allowing young adults to be granted the right to drink in restaurants, bars, at social events, in the comfort of their own home, and so on. If anything, lowering the legal drinking age would have a positive impact onRead More America Must Lower the Drinking Age Essay981 Words   |  4 PagesAmerica Must Lower the Drinking Age The current drinking age in the United States of America is 21. There are some people who agree with the current drinking age even some who think it should be raised. On the other hand, a number of people feel that the current drinking age produces more problems than it prevents (â€Å"Cross Fire†). The United States has unsuccessfully tried prohibition legislation not once, but twice in the past. These laws were eventually done away with due to the inability