Running Head: WHAT SHOULD THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE BE 1

What Should the Legal Drinking Age Be?

University of Texas at El Paso

Donnellon Guzman, Gilbert Ramirez, Cynthia Gomez

Rhetorical and Composition 1302

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Abstract

In this paper the topic how is what the legal drinking age should be. First, the

introduction giving the thesis of why the legal drinking age should be kept at 21 years old instead

of lowered to 18 years old and a brief description of the opposing side’s argument. After that will

be influences of why 21 years old was picked to be the legal drinking limit that is the first reason

in the paper. Second reason in the paper is binge drinking that is followed by drunk driving.

After that the paper discusses how the brain is not fully developed and how alcohol effects the

brain. Lastly is the conclusion which briefly wraps about everything written in the paper.

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Introduction

In 1987 Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The National

Drinking Age Act was the act that gave states until October 1986 to raise their drinking age from

18 years old to 21 or the state would lose 10% of all their federal highway funding. Since this act

was put into effect there has been constant debate of what the drinking age should be. Many

people argue that the legal drinking age should be 18 years old because they believe that the age

of 21 is inconsistent with every other age restriction like voting, buying tobacco products, get

married, etc. Another reason people feel that the legal drinking age should be 18 years old is that

if an American citizen can go to war and die for their country that person should be able to

consume alcohol if they choose. Those people that argue for 18 years old to be the legal drinking

age that when the drinking age was 18 years old that the number of drunk driving accidents was

increased, 21 years old is just not a random number there are multiple influences for 21 years old

instead of 18, the brain is not fully developed at 18 years old and alcohol will impair the brains

of 18 years old and 18-year olds are more likely to binge drink than 21-year olds.

Influences Behind 21 Years Old

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Up to this day we are aware that the drinking age in the United States is set to be 21 years

of age. However, during the 1970s many states required for individuals to only be 18 or 19 years

of age to be able to purchase and consume alcohol. During this time, these states for the most

part believed that an 18 or 19-year-old was old enough to consume alcohol due to the reason that

it was assumed that they were mature and knowledgeable enough to take a decision while being

aware of what the outcomes could be when taking certain actions. In addition, many states that

had assigned a drinking age of 21 had lowered it to 18 or 19 due to the argument that if

individuals were required to fight and die at war then they should have the privilege to consume

alcohol.

Nonetheless, organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) highly promoted

the negative impact in teenagers consuming alcohol. The MADD organization would utilize

publicized studies that would evoke how teenagers who would consume alcohol were becoming

an issue to society and a potential threat. In addition, they would also high promote personal

stories of mothers who lost their children in a car accident due to a drunk teenager. Organizations

like such eventually brought awareness to many individuals, that lead to the ears of congress.

When such case was brought to the table of congress, information like statistics and accident

reports were mentioned. As an example, the website National Youth Rights Association states

the following regarding such matter. “Young drivers are involved in one of every five fatal auto

accidents. Almost 60 percent of fatally injured teenagers were found to have alcohol in their

blood; 43 percent of those were legally intoxicated. Five thousand of those killed on our

highways each year are teenagers – a fifth of all auto fatalities – although teenagers account for

only 10 percent of all drivers and travel only 9 percent of all miles driven.

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These statistics, taken from Thomas’ Senate Vote Analysis, said that 5000 killed on our

highways are teenagers, one fifth of the total, which would mean the total is 25,000. Then look

where it says that 60 percent of that number (5000) had alcohol in their blood, so that’s 3000. Of

that number, 43 percent were legally intoxicated. .43 * 3000 = 1290. So, 1290 drunk teens out of

25,000 total accidents – that is 5 percent not 20 percent as they imply.”

Moreover, even with such information provided, it is not to the right of congress to set a drinking

age all across the United States. However, congress does have the power and responsibility over

the supply of funds to states regarding the roads. Therefore, if states did not establish a drinking

age of 21within 2 years, they would lose portion of their Federal-aid highway funds. If in the

third year, states had not yet established that age of 21 they would lose 5 percent of the funds

(which was a huge amount) and 10 percent the fourth year. This was not beneficial whatsoever to

states, therefore most of the states adopted the drinking age to be 21 within a year. This became

known as The National Minimum Drinking Age Act in which was passed by the United States

Congress on July 17, 1987.

Binge Drinking

One of the main reasons why the drinking age was lowered was because of 18- year olds

binge drinking. Binge drinking is a major problem in our society today and has been a problem

for many years. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there have

been more than 3,400 deaths and 189,000 emergency visits for those under 21 years old due to

excessive alcohol consumption, and those are just the most serves consequences of underage.

Why these statistics are important is because those are the numbers with the legal drinking age at

21 years old. Those numbers would only get worse because according to the CDC in 1985 (right

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before the National Minimum Drinking Age Act took effect) underage drinking for teens around

the age of 18-20 was at 59%, that is a pretty high in comparison to 24.5% in 2014 which is what

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) reported (some

information that is important to know is that 90% of all drinking according to the CDC is

considered binge drinking). This means that alcohol related deaths and hospital could potentially

double if the legal drinking age was lowered to 18 years old.

Increase in Drunk Driving

One of the many reasons that the legal drinking age was raised to 21 years old

was drunk driving. One of the many things that forced the congresses hands was the drunk

driving epidemic of the 1970s. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

(NIH) in the during the 1970s 60% of traffic fatalities had alcohol involved in them and two

thirds of those accidents involved some between the ages of 16-20. According to the CDC the

number of motor vehicle accidents decreased 16% once the legal drinking age was raised to 21

years old. This leads many to ask the question if we were to lower the legal drinking age to 18

years old would we be endangering the lives of thousands.

Influence alcohol has on the brain

Becoming a young adult can be a very confusing time is one's life, mixing alcohol

into the equation can only make matters worse. Scientific studies show that the

consumption of alcohol stuns the prefrontal cortex and limbic brain regions thus affecting

puberty. During this transition from adolescent to adulthood is when the most risking

behavior is experienced medical terminology for this act is adolescent milieu. During this

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time the brain changes very little, but the effects of alcohol consumption can be

everlasting. Alcohol affects the communic ato

Conclusion

To recap, the debate on what the legal drinking age should be has been going on since

around 1987 when congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Many people

believe that the legal drinking age should be lowered back to 18 years old because they believe

that the age of 21 is inconsistent with every other age restriction like voting, buying tobacco

products, get married, etc. Another reason people feel that the legal drinking age should be 18

years old is that if an American citizen can go to war and die for their country that person should

be able to consume alcohol if they choose but the legal drinking age should stay at 21 years old

because the brain in 18 year old has not fully developed yet and alcohol can seriously damage

brain development, binge drinking and drunk driving accidents would dramatically increase if

the legal drinking age was increased, and 21 years old was not a random number there was a

reason that the government picked 21 years old instead of 18.

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Work Cited

Bowersox, J. (March 29, 2013). Alcohol Related Traffic Deaths. Research Portfolio Online

Reporting Tools l, Retrieved

from https://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=24

Unknown. (September 20, 2017). Underage Drinking. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service

Administration (SAMHSA), Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/underage-drinking-

topic

Unknown. (October 20, 2016). Fact Sheets- Underage Drinking. Center for Diseases Control

and Prevention (CDC), Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-

sheets/underage-drinking.htm

Palicz, A. K. (n.d.). Legislative Analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Retrieved

March 10, 2018, from http://www.youthrights.org/research/library/legislative-analysis-of

the-national-minimum-drinking-age-act/

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