The Importance Of Drinking Age In The United States

At the age of eighteen, in the United States, a person is able to: buy a lottery ticket, get a tattoo, buy cigarettes, enlist in the army, and even vote for president but is unable to drink alcohol. On July 17th, 1984 President Ronald Reagan signed into law the National Minimum Drinking Age Bill, but let's also keep in mind that he proclaimed “Ice cream is a nutritious and wholesome food”. He obviously had questionable knowledge on health and what's best for an individual. This law, although seemingly necessary at the time, has become outdated and is in desperate need of a change. The legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered because the current age engenders dangerous drinking habits, the law has exceptions in a vast majority
The law has lessoned the amount of people drinking but has caused people to choose to drink more. Binge drinking is on the rise. According to William Heisel a writer for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation “18-20 year olds experienced a 56% increase in binge drinking between 1993 and 2001.” and since 2001 the numbers have continued to rise. According to research by Daily News New York the fifth leading cause for emergency room visits are drunk teenagers. These dangerous habits need to be stopped. In lowering the drinking age teens will feel less of the urge to rebel and drink as much as possible.
According to Choose Responsibility lowering the drinking age would “offer alternative choices for parents and college campuses around the country in shaping responsible drinking behaviors and encouraging informed decisions about alcohol use.” Dangerous drinking habits are a national problem, they need to be solved and the easiest way to do so would be lowering the legal drinking age to