Lowering The Drinking Age

Alcohol. The third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. This deathly drug is estimated to kill nearly 88,000 men and women each year (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). As adolescents and young adults are dismally getting injured and killed every day, the thrust many Americans are making to lower the minimum legal drinking age is continuing on. The age citizens are allowed to fight for their country and vote for their leaders is a young 18 years old, so many believe, why can’t they drink a beer?
Throughout the past few decades, the legal drinking age has been lowered to 18 years of age, and then raised again, in many states across the country. Adolescents and young adults throughout the United States believe
the minimum legal drinking age needs to be lowered, but the research and death rates in the past couple years, suggests otherwise. Each year the death rate is increasing, especially in night time car accidents involving young adults and underage adolescents. The controversial topic of reducing the minimum legal drinking age has raised eyebrows throughout the country, continuing to be a controversial topic in households and local bars in the United States. The increasing death rates and continuous research involved with lowering the minimum legal drinking age has shown to citizens and adolescents, the drinking age must stay at 21 years old. All through the late 1960s and the 1970s, many state law makers all over the country reduced the state’s drinking age from 21 years old to 18 years old to more closely align with the changes being made for military enlistment and voting.
Drunk driving crashes and alcohol related fatalities soon increased significantly in the states who chose to lower the minimum legal drinking age. 16 of the 29 states had increased their minimum legal drinking age back to 21 in 1983 due to the fatal deaths occurring throughout the country. On July 17th 1984, President Reagan signed into law the Uniform Drinking Age Act, mandating all states to adopt 21 as the legal drinking age within five years. Because of this new law, by 1988, all the states set the minimum legal drinking age to 21 years old. The minimum drinking age of 21 has been estimated to save around 900 lives per year, but the drinking age is still causing problems, and adolescents and adults continue to succumb each year due to this liquid depressant
(MADD). The current minimum legal drinking age has saved many lives, more than the drinking age of 18 did many years ago. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that from 1975-2008, the MLDA of 21 decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for 18 to 20 year olds by 13 percent and saved approximately 27,052 lives. In a 2008 study done by two professors at the University of California, it was found that at the time the minimum legal drinking age began to rise back to 21 years of age, the number of fatal car accidents involving alcohol decreased by a large percent. As shown in the figure below, night time motor vehicle accidents involving 18 to 20 year olds decreased by about 30 percent the 7 years after the increase in age (Carpenter).

By keeping the minimum legal drinking age at 21 years old, the risk of car crashes, deaths, and accidents is greatly decreased through adolescents and young adults in the country. Alcohol is a depressant thought to relax the body and reduce anxiety, but it is “the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States” (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). Adolescents across America are attending parties and concerts each weekend, binge drinking and acting carelessly. Binge drinking, alcoholism, and alcohol related accidents not only are a burden to the economy, but to the many families that lose members each day due to these fatal accidents resulting from underage alcohol usage. “In 2013 an estimated 697,000 adolescents ages 12–17 had an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)” (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). Throughout the United States, teenagers and young adults are carelessly drinking underage and causing fatal accidents, affecting themselves, and everyone around them. Lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years old in the United States will only cause more problems, and more deaths. Students will continue to miss school due to late night parties involving alcohol, continue to be admitted into rehab due to AUD’s, and continue to ruin their lives due to a substance that is simply “supposed” to reduce their anxiety.
The debate of whether the minimum legal drinking age should be lowered back to 18 in the United States has been going on for many years.
The drinking age of 21 seems to still cause problems, and many experts and opinionated citizens believe lowering the drinking age is a viable solution. Barrett Seaman, the current president of Choose Responsibility, often discusses and debates the pros and cons of lowering the legal drinking age in the United States. Seaman believes lowering the drinking age may be a solution to the problems often found across the country, especially on college campuses. Seaman states in a Boston University article, “I look to Canada and to the rest of the world and I see that people can drink at a younger age and be civilized about it” (Daniloff). This may be true, but many adolescents are also irresponsible and senseless. Thousands of adolescents, young adults, and community members get killed each year due to alcohol related causes. In 2013 alone, 16.6 million adults had an AUD, and only 1.3 million of those ill people received proper treatment at a specialized facility. Alcohol isn’t just a liquid depressant used for entertainment at a party, or to cope with a broken relationship, it is a serious problem in the United States, and throughout the world. When the drinking age was raised to 21, the number of deaths caused by alcohol decreased. Lowering the drinking age will only cause more adolescents to drink irresponsibly resulting in an added number of
deaths each year.
To many, alcohol may seem like an easy way to have fun with friends, but it is a fatal depressant that is one of the leading preventable causes of death in the United States. Lowering the minimum legal drinking age will not only cause more accidents and deaths each year, but will influence many lives in a negative way. The minimum legal drinking age needs to stay at 21 years old, despite other laws, like voting age and enlistment. In many other countries with a drinking age of 18, deaths and accidents still occur, they just are not brought up enough in the United States. The drinking age is a tough battle to fight, but lowering the drinking age to 18 or even 20, will just raise the number of deaths each year by an enormous amount, leading people to a life as one of the 88,000 victims.