The Issue of Lowering of Legal Drinking Age

Cody Schisnewski Final Draft 09/29/09 Period 1 A number of States in the U. S. are considering legislation to lower the legal drinking age from the current age of 21 to 18. The move would defy a generation of federal law and public opinion in America which is strongly opposed to lowering the drinking age. In 1984, congress set the legal drinking age to 21 from 18, threatening to cut highway funding to states which did not comply, mostly to cut down on drunk driving deaths caused each year by drinking and driving.

But advocates argue teenagers are going to drink anyway even if changed. Should the drinking age be lowered? In my opinion, the drinking age doesn’t need to be reduced to 18, the drinking laws need to be changed completely. I think there should be a public drinking age of 18, and a private or supervised drinking age of 12. This way, children (young adults) can be taught how to drink socially and responsibly from a young age, so alcohol isn’t such a mystery and there would be less attraction or desire to being able to drink when they turn 21 with there friends.

Children need to be taught how to drink responsibly by there parents, and not by some irresponsible friends. And most parents wouldn’t have to worry about criminal charges or D. U. I. ’s because they chose to teach there children about drinking responsibly when they where younger. I have two very different opinions from two different people. Joel who is pro Age 21, from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD states “Back in the late 1960s and early 70s a number of states lowered their drinking age from 21 to 18. In many of these states, research documented a significant increase in highway deaths of the teens affected by these laws.

After the law changed back to 21, many of the states were `monitored to check the difference in highway fatalities. Researchers found that teenage deaths in fatal car crashes dropped considerably in some cases up to 28% when the laws were moved back to 21. ” (redblueamerica. com) Another person, Ben who is pro Age 18, from Radley Balkdo/Reason Group, has his own opinion, stating “It makes little sense that America considers an 18-year-old mature enough to marry, to sign a contract, to vote and to fight and die for his country, but not mature enough to decide whether or not to ave a beer. People that are for the drinking age of 21 primary argument is the dramatic drop in the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities since the minimum age first passed Congress in 1984. ” (redblueamerica. com) In conclusion, drinking, no matter what age, needs to be treated responsibly. To keep you and the life’s of others out of harms way. And never to drive while under the influence which can lead to serious property damage, other or self injury or in some cases even death.

And like I said in the beginning, why don’t we look more into just changing are drinking laws to something completely different, if anything schools should start classes teaching students the danger of underage drinking and driving. This is a very complex argument and both side state very strong opinion and facts, who knows which one is right and which one is wrong, but what I do know is deaths cause by irresponsible drinking is very wrong and we should put all of are minds together to try and stop it from happening.