The Drinking Age In The US Should Not Be Lowered



The Drinking Age In The US Should Not Be Lowered

Introduction

The usage of addictive substances such alcohol and other drugs have been increasing with the passage of time. People of all ages and gender are prone to the consumption of such drugs and addictives without understanding the risk factors that are associated with it. It was in the year of 1983, that the drinking age at a national level was increased from 18 to 21. It is since then that the habit of binge drinking has curbed especially when it comes to the teenage years. Parents ensured the fact that they have a tight control over their teenagers and eventually curbed the number of teenagers drinking heavily eventually bettering the conditions from what it was. There still are certain schools of thought that argue that the drinking age should be as low as 1 and they believe on the fact that this will reduce the ills of the society. But such schools of thought fail to understand that when drinking age of 21 has been a catalyst in increasing the crime rates of the society so an age of 17 is going to worsen the situation. Criminal activities will not only take on streets and houses but also in schools and colleges. It is this aspect which can impact the future generations of tomorrow from an early age.

Discussion

There are severe disadvantages associated with lowering the drinking age in USA and few of them are:

Traffic Accidents

Lowering the drinking age will increase the probability of drunk driving cases. Statistics communicate that there are nearly 17000 individuals who are said to die annually because of drunk driving accidents which is said to be 41 percent of the total traffic oriented accidents. There have been approximately 1.5 million drivers who are said to be arrested for driving under alcohol influence. 1.5 million Drivers are 1 percent of the total population of USA. Such accidents tend to increase costs not only monetarily but also in terms of human life. Based on statistics, drunk driving vases and accidents have said increase the cost to $51 billion. The statistics also show that there is more of youth involved when it comes to traffic related accidents (www.alcoholalert.com). Based on the statistics issued in MADD magazine, it was noticed that in the year of 2010, that there were highest ...