Help me with my paper on, Loweing the drinking age?

Question

We had to write a paper in english regarding a law we dissagree with, i chose the drinking age. I personally dont drink, but here it goes.

Legal adults can marry, purchase or perform in pornography, vote, adopt children, own cars, have abortions, enter into legally binding contracts, operate businesses, vote, adopt children, give consent for sexual intercourse, hold public office, purchase weapons, be imprisoned, be executed, be an employer, sue and be sued, and go to war, but still cannot touch their lips to alcohol. America has the highest drinking age in the world, but still manages to pass off cigarettes to 18 year olds. You can be arrested for drinking alcohol, but not for passing on secondhand smoke. The drinking age in this country needs to be lowered out sheer respect of an adults choice to make adult decisions.

You may think that the drinking age is a national law, but it is anything but. The reason every state has the same drinking age, is because they are threatened by the Federal Aid Highway Act. If the state chooses not to comply with their law, they are subject to a ten percent decrease in their annual federal highway apportionment. This bill was passed with extreme pressure from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. As you could imagine it would be hard to say no to such an important cause, but age hardly has anything to do with the chance of the person driving while intoxicated.

The former president of Middlebury College, Dr. John McCardell, is completely apposed to our drinking age, “the 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law. It is astonishing that college students have thus far acquiesced in so egregious an abridgment of the age of majority. Unfortunately, this acquiescence has take the form of binge drinking,” Said McCardell. If we look back at history,

there was a time when alcohol was outlawed completely, and obviously did not last. Alcohol is a part of the entire world’s culture, and at the very least should be available to legal adults.

On your 18th birthday, you are granted almost every right there is, except the right to drink alcohol. When I turn 18 next year, I can legally buy a house, adopt 40 children, get married, then enlist in the army, and have my legs blown off, come back in the same year, and still not be allowed to drink. I could even vote on drinking laws. Do you see any problems with this system, because I sure do. If you are legally an adult, with adult responsibilities, then you should be allowed to make the choice whether or not you are mature enough to drink.

When a country considers you an adult, I would expect them to understand what this means, and that as an adult, you are now ready to handle the responsibilities of the world, and the age of alcohol consumption should be no exception. Many minors drink,

simply because they can’t have that “forbidden fruit”, it makes them feel more adult, and mature when they take it, but knowing a 20 year old cannot sip a glass of sweet champagne at their wedding is just unbelievable.


Thanks for reading Yahoo!
If you see anything that could use improvement please speak up.

whcwarrior_10 - You may not trust an 18 year old with those responsibilities but that does not mean they arn't available to them.



Adam B - Thank you for the contribution! But I have no idea where to find that kind of information. I tried google, but no luck.


Brian - Then what about smoking? It's ok to get cancer at 18, but not brain damage?

Jlr - Good for you dude, i wish people over here were more mature like that. :)

Answer 1

thats very good. good job
better then what i could do

Answer 2

I suggest you include some statistical data. For instance, how about comparing the rates of alcoholism among 18-21 year olds pre-and-post introduction of the 21 drinking age? How about comparing American rates to those of foreign countries with lower drinking ages? The law is a public health issue, and like any issue related to the public health it should be supported by evidence. You resort mostly to analogy to other rights, and while this is fine, I don't think it's enough by itself.

Edit> Google by itself probably won't do everything you need. Try hitting the library, or finding out if your local library has access to Jstor.org or some other scholarly research journal database.

Answer 3

the ideal answer that some 30 +/- years in the past, the ingesting age became into set at 18. there have been greater vehicle fatalities and circumstances of inebriated using than have been on condition that. it rather is to not say that the final public of youthful adults can not handle their liquor or that older adults are greater accountable, however the data proceed to be that the older you are the greater advantageous you're at making the final judgements and being waiting to handle the accountability. it is likewise why states attempt to develop the using age to 18. they believe that an 18 365 days previous is greater advantageous geared up and greater mature in the back of the wheel that an baby of sixteen. As in all circumstances in existence, there is often exceptions to the guideline.

Answer 4

yes true but it was the the teens driving that killed those kids that was why mothers against drunk drivers came about at first it was to keep them off the roads while drinking when that was in effected a lot stayed home and abused or beat up on their friends or kin passed out while baby's needed their care so i would have to say look at the smoking now it has also been banned in places adults as well as teens and sooner then you might think the driving age might go up as well over being to many autos on the road ways if they want to ban smoking drinking why not these as well and even push working ages up to 21 years of age that might even let some of the others that have been laid off get back to work instead of drawing unemployment so if you want to go all out go all out not just in a few places.

Answer 5

Responsibility has relatively nothing to do with this argument. The real problem lies in the fact that science has concluded that at the age of 18 the brain is still considerably vulnerable. And alcohol and the effects of consumption can drastically alter the brain from ever reaching its full potential.

Answer 6

well lets think about it this way how many adults make good decisions not very many especially at 18 or even at 21 so i don't think the drinking age should be lowered because age young age i believe people are more likely to become alcoholic and drinking is big issue in colleges because the student drink too much and then drive. or drink too much and get raped so if the drinking age is lowered the crime rate in younger population will go up.

Answer 7

Hell I personally believe if you are old enough to serve your country at age 17 then you should be old enough to drink at age 17. But don't put that on your paper cause that might not go over so well with the teacher, HAHA

Answer 8

You might want to go further with the constitutional aspects of federal coercion of the states by attaching the age requirement to the Federal Highways Act. Other than that nit, it is a very sound argument.

Answer 9

...Alcohol is a "solvent"... it dissolves "things", like brain cells and "marriages" and "jobs", just to name a few... At the "ripe old age of 18", please... relax a bit... you'll reach 21 if you don't dissolve to many brain cells and at the age of "emancipation", you'll be almost free from "age" restrictions... that's why Automobile rental outlets won't let you rent a car till you're "25"... go figure.

Answer 10

18 is hardley an adult, although, defined by law. i would not trust an 18 year old with any of the decisions you mentioned, especially adopting children, or holding public office.

Answer 11

The age for drinking liquor cannot be lowered because it was found out that minds of young people could be damaged by liquor.