Drinking Age Analysis
Many teenagers in the United States look forward to the day they turn 21 so they can legally consume alcohol. This drinking age was first introduced under the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. Under this act, “all states were required to raise their minimum purchase and public possession of alcohol age to 21” (alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org). Although many adults enjoy alcoholic beverages, some individuals do not responsibly do so. For this reason, the drinking age should be raised to 25 due to the overwhelming amount of evidence proving that alcohol is responsible for many health problems, traffic violations or vehicular accidents, and decreased academic performance among college-aged students.
Health problems are extremely prevalent …show more content…
The CDC states that “every day, 28 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver.” This means that a person dies every 51 minutes due to an individual’s irresponsibility with alcoholic beverages. In the year of 2014, “the highest percentage of drunk drivers was for drivers ages 21-24” (madd.org). People on the opposing side may argue that individuals under the age of 21 already drink, therefore an increase in the age would not change anything. While this may be true, any step in the right direction is worth it if it can possibly save an innocent life. The above statistic shows that if the drinking age were raised the amount of vehicular accidents related to alcohol would decrease. It also illustrates the fact that adults under the age of 25 that consume alcohol have reduced decision-making skills. Therefore, this demonstrates another reason the drinking age should be increased to …show more content…
According to elementsbehavioralhealth.com, “almost 73 percent of college students drink at least sometimes, and the average male freshman in college drinks an average of 7.4 alcoholic beverages per week”. Although this is not the case for every college student, this statistic is staggering. Research has also shown that “one third of college students have missed a class because of drinking, and one fifth failed an exam for the same reason” (elementsbehavioralhealth.com). If the drinking age was raised to 25, there would be less of a chance that college students would have access to alcoholic beverages. In opposition, individuals could argue that, in the United States, one is an adult when they reach the age of 18. Therefore, they should legally be allowed to drink and make responsible decisions on their own. The above statistics show that this is not always true and many college-aged students do not make reasonable choices in relation to alcohol
Health problems are extremely prevalent …show more content…
The CDC states that “every day, 28 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver.” This means that a person dies every 51 minutes due to an individual’s irresponsibility with alcoholic beverages. In the year of 2014, “the highest percentage of drunk drivers was for drivers ages 21-24” (madd.org). People on the opposing side may argue that individuals under the age of 21 already drink, therefore an increase in the age would not change anything. While this may be true, any step in the right direction is worth it if it can possibly save an innocent life. The above statistic shows that if the drinking age were raised the amount of vehicular accidents related to alcohol would decrease. It also illustrates the fact that adults under the age of 25 that consume alcohol have reduced decision-making skills. Therefore, this demonstrates another reason the drinking age should be increased to …show more content…
According to elementsbehavioralhealth.com, “almost 73 percent of college students drink at least sometimes, and the average male freshman in college drinks an average of 7.4 alcoholic beverages per week”. Although this is not the case for every college student, this statistic is staggering. Research has also shown that “one third of college students have missed a class because of drinking, and one fifth failed an exam for the same reason” (elementsbehavioralhealth.com). If the drinking age was raised to 25, there would be less of a chance that college students would have access to alcoholic beverages. In opposition, individuals could argue that, in the United States, one is an adult when they reach the age of 18. Therefore, they should legally be allowed to drink and make responsible decisions on their own. The above statistics show that this is not always true and many college-aged students do not make reasonable choices in relation to alcohol