The Debate Over The Drinking Age - 1025 Words

I have always wondered why the drinking age was raised to twenty-one. I have looked and researched the following information but still don’t have a true explanation as to why it was raised to the age of twenty-one. The movement called Amethyst Initiative began recruiting university presidents to provoke national debate about the drinking age. College Presidents from about 100 of the nation’s universities, are calling on law makers to consider lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen by claiming the current laws encourage dangerous binge drinking on campuses. These colleges include some of the popular one like including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State. Mothers against drunk driving officials and the Amethyst Initiative both agree that alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem. Research has found more than forty percent of college students reported either symptoms of alcohol abuse or dependency. A recent associated press analysis of federal records found from 1999 through 2005, 157 college age people drank themselves to death. This is because they couldn’t legally drink so when they could acquire it they went overboard with drinking. James C Fell who is a senior program director at the alcohol policy and research center of the pacific institute for research and evaluation in Calverton, Md. says â€Å"that binge drinking among eighth, tenth and twelfth graders has been steadily going down since the drinkingShow MoreRelatedThe Debate Over The Drinking Age2461 Words   |  10 Pagesexplores the debate over whether the drinking age should be lowered or raised in the United States. Multiple different sources are provided, each offering a different opinion. The article discusses the ethical, pathological, and emotional effects if the drinking age were to be lowered or raised. If the drinking age were to change, how would society react to this change and what would be the long term effects. Drinking has always caused neg ative effects, yet how would changing the age effect personalRead MoreThe Debate Over A Proper Legal Drinking Age1243 Words   |  5 PagesThe debate over a proper legal drinking age has been ongoing for decades. Some people believe twenty-one is the right age for legally consuming alcohol, while others believe twenty-one is too old. There are many supporters of an age limit of eighteen on alcohol consumption, but it has not been enough to sway Congress away from their set age of twenty-one. One major advocate for the age of twenty-one is the organization MADD, or â€Å"Mothers Against Drunk Driving†. This organization supports the age ofRead MoreEssay about Debate Over the Legal Drinking Age1735 Words   |  7 PagesThe Debate Over the Legal Drinking Age College life is filled with changes. It is filled with many new experiences. As college students, we are on our own, adults. As adults we are responsible for keeping up to date on information that affects us. One issue that affects college students nation wide is drinking. The current legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one years of age. The Federal government raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1984. Even with the current drinkingRead MoreQuicker Liquor Essay1506 Words   |  7 PagesShould We Lower the Drinking Age? | 18 vs. 21 | â€Å"Quicker Liquor† A Short Research Paper Should the legal drinking age be lowered? Those who supported the change for the 2009 re-authorization of the law (dubbed Pro 18), and those who wanted the law to remain at the current age of 21 (dubbed Pro 21), had three major categories to explore for this debate: safety, binge drinking and maturity. There is opposition and support on both sides of the issue including a coalition founded inRead MoreResearch Paper Drinking Age1565 Words   |  7 PagesThe legal drinking age refers to the youngest age at which a person is legally allowed to buy and consumes alcoholic beverages. The drinking age varies from country to country. Here in the United States the legal drinking age is twenty-one. There has been much debate on whether the drinking age in the United States should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. People in favor of keeping the drinking age at twenty-one believe that there will be less alcohol related injuries and deaths fromRead MoreLowering the Drinking Age to 18 May Help Reduce Binge Drinking1072 Words   |  5 PagesThe debate of the drinking age has been long discussed throughout America. The drinking age has been 21 for the last 22 years, and people around the country have wondered weather or not this was the right call. People say that 18 year olds may not be mature enough to drink alcohol and might not know when to stop. It isn’t that teenagers don’t know how to stop, but rather have not been properly taught when enough has been consumed or how to drink responsibly. Changing the drinking age from 21Read MoreDebate on the Legal Drinking Age736 Words   |  3 PagesThe drinking age has been twenty-one for the past thirty years, but for the past few years, there have been debates on changing the drinking age back to eighteen. Most individuals under twenty-one have consumed an alcoholic beverage; many have done so because he or she thinks it is cool and/or his or her friends want him or her to. Regardless of why individuals drink before the legal drinking age, if those individuals are caught by authorities, the individual(s) will have to face the consequencesRead MoreLowering The Minimum Drinking Age1429 Words   |  6 Pagesand Thailand are others – with a minimum drinking age over 18† (Griggs, 1). Wh en Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, its goal was to reduce less-mature adults from consuming alcohol and performing reckless acts (Cary, 1). However, despite the current drinking age, 17.5 percent of consumer spending for alcohol in 2013 was under the age of 21. It is estimated that â€Å"90 percent of underage drinking is consumed via binge drinking†¦with alcohol abuse becoming more prevalentRead MoreEssay on Lowering Drinking Age778 Words   |  4 Pagesyou could not have an alcoholic drink till your twenty one. But there are people out there that think that we should lower that age to eight teen. A group of 129 college presidents are actually asking that there at least be a discussion to the argument (Lewis et al, 2008). They think that it would stop all the underage drinking at colleges and would teach kids at an early age how to handle alcohol (Lewis et al, 2008). In my option lowering it would not help all the problems we have with a lcohol. I feelRead MoreAlcoholism And The Consumption Of Alcoholic Liquor918 Words   |  4 Pages Over eighty percent of the world’s population over the age of eighteen has consumed an alcoholic beverage sometime in their lives. Of which, fifty-six percent of them have consumed an alcohol this month (http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/). â€Å"Alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor. Alcoholism is considered to be a mental illness that results in alcohol dependency† (Webster Dictionary). Statistics state that there were 2.5 million deaths worldwide; and 88,000 deaths in the United