Minimum Drinking Age
The Minimum Drinking Age Should Remain at 21
INTRODUCTION:
Imagine a man who is in his mid-forties, he has a nice house and nice car, with 2 beautiful children, ages 14 and 18. He is one of those parents who has done everything and anything for his kids, as any parent would. He has gone through all the hard times of raising them and taking care of them, and they are almost on that brink of becoming adults. Then one Friday night, he gets a call at 2:45 in the morning. It’s the police. They start off with “We regret to inform you….” And proceed to tell him that his 18-year-old son, the one who had just mowed the lawn earlier that day and taken out the trash, his pride and joy, was now dead. They say the cause of death was that he had been drinking, …show more content…
From when the United states first became an independent country, there was no national drinking age, anyone could drink at any age until 1919, which is when the prohibition was put into place. The prohibition was the 18th amendment to the US Constitution, which did not allow anyone of any age to drink at all in the US. That amendment was not very popular with citizens and in just 10 years, the 21st amendment of the Constitution was ratified and therefore ended the prohibition. Most states at this time decided what the drinking age should be for their respective territories. The majority of states had the age at 21, however there were still a few that had it at 18. This stood for about 30 years, until the late 1960’s. At this time, almost all states lowered the drinking age down to 18, and it went horribly. There was a large spike in alcohol related car accidents, and driving while under the influence was, scarily, close to the norm. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), 60% of all traffic fatalities were alcohol related and approximately two-thirds that occurred with people between 16 and 20 years old. So, in 1984, Ronald Regan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which was a law that required all states in the United States to change the minimum age to 21, if it was not already there. Some states did not agree with this and decided to keep it there, figuring there was …show more content…
There will always be people who want to drink underage, and if we were to lower the legal age thinking that we can avoid the problems of dealing with young people drinking, that is wrong. Underage drinking will only get pushed down on to even younger people which is even worse for a 15-year-old to be drinking rather than a 19 or 20-year-old. If not for just the scientific facts of the damage underage drinking does, think back to the proposal at the beginning of this paper, imagine what that would be like to lose a child. I know I would not want to go through that, and I hope you wouldn’t want to
INTRODUCTION:
Imagine a man who is in his mid-forties, he has a nice house and nice car, with 2 beautiful children, ages 14 and 18. He is one of those parents who has done everything and anything for his kids, as any parent would. He has gone through all the hard times of raising them and taking care of them, and they are almost on that brink of becoming adults. Then one Friday night, he gets a call at 2:45 in the morning. It’s the police. They start off with “We regret to inform you….” And proceed to tell him that his 18-year-old son, the one who had just mowed the lawn earlier that day and taken out the trash, his pride and joy, was now dead. They say the cause of death was that he had been drinking, …show more content…
From when the United states first became an independent country, there was no national drinking age, anyone could drink at any age until 1919, which is when the prohibition was put into place. The prohibition was the 18th amendment to the US Constitution, which did not allow anyone of any age to drink at all in the US. That amendment was not very popular with citizens and in just 10 years, the 21st amendment of the Constitution was ratified and therefore ended the prohibition. Most states at this time decided what the drinking age should be for their respective territories. The majority of states had the age at 21, however there were still a few that had it at 18. This stood for about 30 years, until the late 1960’s. At this time, almost all states lowered the drinking age down to 18, and it went horribly. There was a large spike in alcohol related car accidents, and driving while under the influence was, scarily, close to the norm. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), 60% of all traffic fatalities were alcohol related and approximately two-thirds that occurred with people between 16 and 20 years old. So, in 1984, Ronald Regan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which was a law that required all states in the United States to change the minimum age to 21, if it was not already there. Some states did not agree with this and decided to keep it there, figuring there was …show more content…
There will always be people who want to drink underage, and if we were to lower the legal age thinking that we can avoid the problems of dealing with young people drinking, that is wrong. Underage drinking will only get pushed down on to even younger people which is even worse for a 15-year-old to be drinking rather than a 19 or 20-year-old. If not for just the scientific facts of the damage underage drinking does, think back to the proposal at the beginning of this paper, imagine what that would be like to lose a child. I know I would not want to go through that, and I hope you wouldn’t want to