Should the Legal Drinking Age? Term Paper

Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18

RESOLVED: At present the minimum legal drinking age of 21 years of age is controlled by the federal government by means of federal highway funds. This strips states of their right to self-govern and the higher MLDA is inconsistent with other rights allowed 18-year-olds.

PRO: In favor of lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years of age

Premise 1: studies showing a decline in alcoholic incidents are misleading

Premise 2: the current law is not deterring under age drinking

Premise 3: the minimum legal drinking age of 21 years is socially unjust

Premise 4: it is now a political rather than a social issue

The minimum legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 years of age to reinstate individual and states' rights.

The debate over the minimum legal drinking age can be heard on campuses and in state legislative halls throughout the country. Although there might have been good

intentions for the current legal drinking age of 21, there are many factors that cannot be ignored in favor of lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years.

Research shows a decrease in problems associated with drinking and driving that has paralleled a decrease in the per capita consumption of alcohol, but the declines started in 1980 (Engs 1b). This was before Congress passed the law in 1985

requiring states to raise the legal drinking age to 21 or risk losing federal highway funds.Many factors play into these decreases. Public awareness has brought about drunk driving educational programs, the designated driver programs, and increased usage of seat belts and air bags (Engs 1b). Moreover most states have passed and enforce tougher DUI laws over the last twenty years. The problems associated with driving and drinking have not decreased due to raising the legal drinking age to 21 years old.Among the 'binge' drinkers (those consuming over five drinks at one sitting at least once a week), eighteen percent of students over age 21

classify themselves as heavy drinkers compared to twenty-two percent of those under 21 years of age (Engs 1b). So even though drunk driving problems have decreased over the last two decades, there has been an increase in lower grades, missing classes, getting into fights and vomiting after drinking (Engs 1b). Society's approach to controlling underage drinking is not working and is in fact

counterproductive (Engs).

Hypocrisy is another issue concerning the current minimum legal drinking age.

At 18 years of age a person may live on his own (White 2c). He may pay rent and utilities. He or she may also be issued….....