Drinking Age in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drinking Age in the United States - Essay Example Young adults seem to be bigger binge drinkers that those who are of age to legally drink. It seems to me that in our generation, partying is more and more acceptable which causes people to forget about their responsibilities. The U.S. Surgeon General’s office has reported that lowering the drinking age would cause more â€Å"death from injuries, will play a significant role in risky sexual behavior, and is associated with academic failure and illicit drug use† (Wallace, para. 3). Underage drinking is very common in today’s society. According to the article The Over/Under, the average teen starts experimenting with alcohol use as early as age 13. And that the statistic is that â€Å"nearly one out of every five teenagers has â€Å"blackout† spells in which he or she could not remember what happened the previous evening because of heavy binge drinking† (Wallace, para. 7). Many colleges today are pushing laws to lower the drinking age to 18 because they believe it will decrease binge drinking. However â€Å"the National Survey on Drug Use and Health finds that 36% of 18-20-year-olds reported one or more days of heavy drinking in the past month† (Barnett, 2008). However, over 130 college presidents and chancellors announced that they were fed up with the alcohol abuse taking place on the campus atmosphere. They want to lower the drinking age because they know 18-20-year-olds drink anyways and have to try to do it secretly. They believe if the drinking age was changed to 18, they would be able to monitor the drinking and make moderate drinking the norm (Binge Culture, 2008). The argument against this proposal is that having the age be 21, the fatality rates are lower than they would be if they were 18. In 1984 when the MLDA was raised to 21,  and about 25,000 lives were saved by reducing the alcohol-related traffic fatalities (Barnett, 2008).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   People who are in a favor of lowering the drinking age also argue that if an 18-year-old can fight for there country they should be able to legally drink. Eighteen-year-olds can vote, buy cigarettes, and live on their own, so basically some people believe laws should lower the drinking age because 18 years old is considered to be adult.