The Drinking Age in US

Like other issues, drinking has been a major issue in US. Great debates have been done on the drinking age limit. Changes have been made in recent years to regulate the acceptable consumption and purchasing age. Critics have argued that the main purpose of this change is to maintain the civil order in society instead of managing the health of citizen. Contrastingly, increased drinking habit in adolescent age and individuals desires to start drinking at college life has lifted many social problems, negatively impacting the social and physical life of the American citizens (Dowdall, 32).

Minimum Legal Drinking Age has been increased to 21 years from 18 years in all states; requiring compliance to the MLDA Act 1984 (NIAAA, 163). However, exceptions have been observed in few states regarding the acceptable drink consumption and purchasing state. Different researches notified the role of advertising and presence of alcoholic beverages on influencing the behavior of adolescents. Distinctions have been made in defining the Alcoholism and Alcoholic Abuse. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) identified the association of Binge Drinking with health risks. Investigations conducted at different times for examining the potential health risks associated with drinking showed detrimental impact on health conditions of drinker.

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) studies revealed that rate of Alcoholism is more in teenagers, especially those at teenager, as desire to get used to alcohol drinks is more in younger (Dowdall, 56). In spite of making the Drinking illegal for people below 21, it has been investigated that people age between 11 to 20 years makes 11% share of the total alcohol consumption. Major chunk in this segment is involved in binge drinking habit. Data revealed that more than 90,000 emergency visits were made for injuries and diseases linked to ...