Read this article (there are four pages so make sure you read it all the way through.)
Then, in the comments section, state whether or not you agree with this statement: "The drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18."
Make sure to provide reasons for why you believe as you do. Also read other comments and respond to their arguments using both evidence from the article and your own observations.
To complete the assignment, you must post once by Friday, once over the weekend, and once between Monday and Wednesday. Each post must reflect that you read the article and have read the comments made by others on the blog. Good luck
68 comments:
I personally think that the drinking age should stay at the age of 21. Teens these days already drink under the legal drinking age, so how would lowering the drinking age prevent teens or young adults from getting into accidents caused by drinking, It wouldn't.
I think that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because when a person is 18 they are a legal adult. They are allowed to do many other things when they turn 18, why shouldn't they be able to drink too?
I agree with the college presidents when they say that many people drink before they turn 21 anyways, so if the drinking age was lowered they wouldn't have to hide the fact that they drink.
Some people think that 18 year olds are not responsible enough to drink, but the same 18 year olds who are unresponsible are the ones that drink despite the law against it.
-Kirsten Paull
I think that they should not lower the legal drinking age, though increasing the price may help with slowing down college drinking. Also they could increase the punishment and/or crack down harder on college partys. I also disagree with the colleges because they are just trying to not be the bad guy. Also if it were lowered to 18 alcohol would be alot easier to get.
I think that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because you are an adult and can do just about anything but drink. If they lower the drinking age i dont think there will be as many deaths like in puerto rico because it wont be illegal to so many people. What i would like to know is what you have to do to get a drinking license. i think its a dumb idea and that they just want to find a way to make money. Besides if any person under the age of 21 wants to drink alcohol they will find a way to get it like asking someone old enough or take it from their parents at home. I also dont understand why they think people that are 21 are that much more mature than an 18 year old.
I believe the drinking age should be lowered to the age of 18. At 18 you are legally an adult and therefore should be allowed to make your own decisions. A big reason why minors drink is because they get a feeling of independence and mischief. If they are allowed to drink that feeling would be gone and there would be less of a reason to drink. For example in the article someone wrote, "If you're allowed to drink whenever, it demystifies the whole thing." In that case if the drinking age was lowered, actually less people would drink.
i dont think they should lower the law because we are doing good so far, and you only hear about this stuff when its related to schools and students. We right now inforce good enough laws but if they choose to break it, then we should just crack down harder on them. America is a free country but your not free to kill other people by drinking and driving. I think colleges should not allow alchohol and if people choose to drink then they should be kicked out of that college. They shouldn't have the privledge to go to a nice college and then ruin the reputation of the college by getting it the name of a "Party College". Also if the law was lowered to 18 it would be easier to buy by a older sibling but i HATE alchohol so i wouldn't even try it.
honestly i dont think they should lower the drinking age, because if they had to lower the drinking age back in 1971 and raise it back in 1988, because of auto accidents why would anything change.. its still gonna happen and most 18 year olders are seniors so there might be less students at school because they might have a hangover because they were out partying the day before drinking. yes most people do drink before 21 but that doesnt make a right to lower it because if they do more teens that dont already drink before 21 might start to. so many people get killed because of drunk drivers so why would you lower it. and of they also lowered it many 18 or sisters or brother or even just friends of teens under the age 18 so they could get alcohol for them.
I think that they should lower the drinking age to 18. The reasons is because when your 18 you can drive, vote, buy cigarettes, chew tobacco, you can do the super lotto also go to some casinos, go in the millitary go to strip clubs and many other things. So people say if I can serve my country and die for it then I should be able to to drink a beer. Also if they lower the drinking age down then kids that drive they will have enough time to mature and make good decisions of drinking and driving.Another reason that after they have experience of drinking and driving there will be less drunk driving deaths because they would have enough time to make good decisions. But if they dont lower the drinking age 18 year olds can and still will be able to get beer and drink still.
I do not think that they should lower the drinking age to 18. As the article said, they tried that and in 1988 alcohol related accidents were at an all-time high. Then when they raised the age back to 21, the accidents dropped 56 percent from the all-time high. When you are 18, odds are that you are not as mature or responsible as a 21 which just adds to a greater chance of an accident. I think that the colleges should buckle down and make it harder for people under 18 to have access to alcohol. Christoper Gibert said "everything else in our country is based on 18", which may be true, but i think that those require less responsibilty and you are more aware of your actions. Another issue with lowering the drinking age to 18 is that it would be easier for everyone to get a hold of alcohol through a brother, sister, older friend, or anyone 18 and older, possibly causing more alcohol related accidents and problems.
I think that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. In America, we base adulthood on turning 18. As Gilbert said in the article, if we can be sent to Iraq at 18, we should be able to drink. Maturity and responsibilty levels shouldn't be based on age. Some are mature at 18 even compared to those at 21. Being allowed to drink at a younger age takes away some of the appeal to do it. They drink anyway, might as well make it legal. If teens don't have to hide the fact that they are drinking, they can drink in public and in bars where they can be safer and there can be supervision. For the other side, if you have to hide the drinking, leading to drinking in the dorms, there is less of a chance of driving drunk or getting into fights. Also, if the drinking age is lowered, there is more of a chance of younger kids and teens getting the alcohol because of the increased number of teens that can get it legally.
The drinking age probably should be lowered to 18 because when something is "underground" or secret it is more exciting. It's like if you set a flashing light in front of someone and say "Whatever you do DO NOT touch this". what do you think is the first thing that they do, they touch it. It is human nature to disobey or go against the establishment. "All the data show that by the time they go to college they have already experienced alcohol, so how can anyone say the law is working?" McCardell asked. This is a valid question. Think back to prohibition, did it work? Obviously not. Of cource if the age was lowered we would have an explosion of alchohol related deaths, but like they say it is going to get worse before it gets any better.
Most of me agrees that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. I dont think teens would drink as much. "If you make it legal, they say, it drives binge drinking out into the open, where schools and police can regulate it." The rest of me thinks that if the drinking age was lowered that younger kids would be in danger. They would be tempted to drink and they could get drinks from their older syblings. I also think that teens would take advantage of drinking beacause not all of teens are mature enough.
I agree with lowering the legal drinking age. But then i dont agree. In my opinion if they did lower the legal drinking age to 18 you should be put on a strict parol once you turn 18 till you turn 21 and if you were to get arrested for drunk driving, or BUI, etc. you should be put in jail till you turn 21. I say this because if an 18 year old would get drunk 3-4 times a week then the y probably wornt live till they turn 21. Or if you were arrested more than 3 times for drunk driving your car should have a breathalizer put on the lock of the car and they cant open the car if they dont pass the test.
I dont agree that the age should be lowered because so far this year8921 Teens have been killed so far this year in drunk driving accidents. If the legal age was lowered this number would probably go up close to 5 to 6 times more in a year.
I disagree with that statement. the drinking age should stay at twenty one. No matter what age the drinking age is, people are still going to drink when ever they want to. Lowering the drinking age would just make it seem like its ok to drink, which might make kids younger than eighteen drink more. Lowering the age would drive people to drink more, and that's obviosly not going to fix the problem. Also, if the drinking age was lowered, there would probably be more drunk drivers on the road. So, lowering the drinking age would be a danger to all people, the ones who drink, and the ones who don't.
I somewhat agree with the article that the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to the age of 18. I think that the age should be lowered to 18 because if it were more teenagers would be out in the open with drinking and it would be more controlible. If it were to be lowered i think that less kids would drink because it were to be allowed and they wouldnt feel like it was a "cool" thing to do. Like the article said " i dont think that when your 18 you can go give your life in iraq but you cant drink". When you are the age of 18 you can smoke, move out, and your concedered an adult, but you are not allowed to drink... but i also disagree with some parts because younger teenagers would be able to get ahold of alcohol more easily if it were lowered to the age of 18. Maybe if it were lowered the drinking would decrease because they wouldnt find it as fun. i dont get why you can be 18 and go to war and do alot of things but drinking isn't allowed.
I think the drinking age should stay the same. If the age was lowered it would cause more deathes beetween the ages of 18 and 20. Most high school seniors are 18 years old! That means they could provide alchohol to younger ages. Instead of going to school dances they would be more inclined to go out drinking instead of a school dance or a football game. Even more alchohol related deaths would occur because the immatureness of them
I believe that you should not be able to drink until your 21. I think that the lawmakers would make a huge mistake by changing the law."They are asking lawmakers to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 to curb the allure and "underground culture" of college drinking". says the newspapers covering this story. Teens are not responsible enough to handle somthing that big. When you lower the drinking age you would be just contributing to drunk driving. This how i feel about lawmakers wanting to lower the drinking age.
forgot the period at the end of "them."
I think the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because that's the age when you become an adult. Like they said, if you can drive, vote, smoke, and go into the military then why shouldn't you be able to drink? Alot of kids drink ilegally so they can seem cooler but once it's legal it won't seem as cool and they won't drink as much. One of the reasons why the drinking age is 21 and not 18 is because your brain doesn't really mature until then. But since kids under 21are irresponsible, they'll drink anyways. So what's the point in having a law that no one really follows? One more reason why the drinking age should be lowered is because once it's perfectly legal, people won't have to sneak out and drink. They can stay at home or tell their parents that they're going to drink and where they're going to drink so if something were to happen to them, they're parents would know where they were.
I think you should be able to drink at age 18, because if your allowed to smoke and drive and be considerd as an adult then you should be able to drink.
believe that that the drinking age should be lowered because people can make educated decisions when they are 18 just as much as they can when they are 21. also that most kids are going to drink no matter what so why not just lower the age so they are not so hyped up and crazy about it when they turn 21 and it will be less of a big thing to drink if they had been able to drink for a longer time.
I feel that a lower drinking age would help lower the number of alcohol related deaths in teens. With higher legal drinking ages it drives drinking into areas away from the public eye. I think that it is similar to prohibition. Restricting alcohol only made the problem worse. I also agreed with Gilbert's arguement that if everything else is legal by 18 and you are considered mature enough to commit a crime and face capital punishment as a result, why can't you drink?
mine got deleted hancock remember?
I think that if the drinking age is lowered to 18 it might not be so "cool" to get alcohol and drink. Eighteen-year-olds will drink alcohol if they want to and if it is legal it will be easier to get but it will be more normal and not as exciting. People who are 18 are allowed to do many other things and being able to drink alcohol is another responsibility they will take on at that age.
I think it would be alright if they lowered the drinking law, for one reason other countries drinking age is as low as if you have a parental approval you can go into a bar and get a drink.So if foreign countries can do that and not go crazy i think we could too.
i think that the drinking age should stay at 21 years old. There are quite a few under age drinkers out there. It is easy for some people to get alcohol under age already, so i dont think it should be eiser. I think there would be a lot more alcohol related deaths if it was lowerd to 18. so yup.
im out.
I think that im for both sides and im both against it. i am for lowering it because that way people dont have to hide the fact that they are drinking. if you wanna drink then be for lowering it so you could get drunk every night. i am also for lowering it so that way if there are teens that are under the age limit could drink in their dorms. I personally think that teens should either drink at home when they turn 18 or drink in their dorm rooms because it is more safe than going out to a bar and not wanting to drive and get caught. i think that people should drink in their dorms because they are less likely to get in fights, get raped, and all such when you are drunk or pass out. Another reason why i am for lowering the thing is war. if you are able to go to war in iraq, you should be able to drink. What is so wrong about drinking that you have to go to war in return. But also i am against lowering the drinking age because like ericka said. teens are still gonna drink no matter what the age is. its more of a rush drinking when your parents arent knowing and not getting caught then being able to drink when your allowed. also i am against it because in the article it said once they lowered the drinking age one time there was a higher percentage of car accidents and drunk driving accidents. I think that is really wrong to drink and drive anyway so why do it.. ok a different subject is if they lowered drinking age it would be easier to get the alcohol. yes it would be easier to get it because you could have siblings that could get it for you or you could end up going and getting a fake ID and get it so yess. it would be easier to get it at an easier. ok finally im done. oh hi tori! sincerely me
{COURTNEY WYMER}
The whole concept of drinking is basically irrational. Even when your old enough to LEGALY drink. Essentially, everyone will have a drink before they are legally able so theres no point in lowering the drinking age. People will drink regardless of the legality of the issue. If your dense enough to drink then get into a car with others (who are most likely drunk),is their really anthing to change your mind about drinking? To make you stop and say "Hey, maybe I shouldnt have this drink."? Probably not. In the article it states,"brains under 18 are 'not mature.'" and I fully agree with that. So, all in all, I deem that the drinking age should not be lowered because it will not prevent teens from getting alcohol if they really want it. Sure, it will make it harder for teens to get the beverages, but it wont cancel the definite receiving of the alcohol.
i think that the drinking age should remain at 21, or maybe even higher. if kids who get into accidents drunk at there age, why should we lower it? i believe that if it is lowered, it WILL cause more deaths!
i think that they should lower tyhe drinKING AGE TO 18 BECAUSE SMOKING CIGARETTES IS ALOT WORSE THEN DRINKING AND YET YOU ONLY HAVE TO BE 18 TO BUY THEM!!!!AND PLUS WHEN YOU ARE 18 YOU CAN CHEW VOTE AND LIVE ON YOUR OWN AND SIGN FOR YOURSELF!
LOVE,
JOEJOE
I think that the drinking age should be at 18 because at 18 you have a lot of responsibilty and most people at that age are usally responsible enough to drink and wouldn't drive if they got drunk. I know that my sister has partys that some people sometimes bring alchohol and if people drink at are house she would make them give here keys to her then hide them. Most people in many different countries can get acholoc at age l8 or lower.
I LOVE NATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE JOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Mr. Hancock. Mine was deleted
okay here we go guys some schooling from the genius. Why are we wanting to lower the drinking age to 18 yeah your right we can buy cig's and chew and vote + sign BUT! You forget that our minds don’t mature at all by the time we are 18. You still go out get high and stuff either way. Don’t even try to deny it so why would you want to be able to do another stupid thing like lowering the drinking age so you can get high and drunk and kill more people and not only people but your mind, you may not realize it but once the body has lost the brain cells you have to do many different brain exercises to gain even some relativity of what it was you lost and what are you going to do when you kill a certain cell that makes it nearly impossible to gain any more back ?
brittainy poling
junior
I believe that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. The main reason that I think this is the main reason that teens drink: the mystique and secrecy that the 21 law creates. The main motivation that most teens have for drinking is the fact that you're doing something bad. I visit Canada every summer, where the drinking age is as low as 18 in some places. Drinking is a lot more accepted by parents, and it's not considered as huge of a deal as it is here. This teaches kids to be responsible about their drinking in itself, because theres not much encouragement to go and drink with your friends illegally. If someone is old enough to vote for the next leader of our country or carry a gun in Iraq, I think that they're old enough to drink.
PS- I'm Leif Eng.
At first when i posted my comment on the article i said that the drinking age should be lowered to 18, but in truth i didnt have a very atrong opinion either way. I think that most the people on here either dont care about the issue, or are too lazy to put effort in, but i think that Brittainy Poling got it right when she said "okay here we go guys some schooling from the genius. Why are we wanting to lower the drinking age to 18 yeah your right we can buy cig's and chew and vote + sign BUT! You forget that our minds don’t mature at all by the time we are 18. You still go out get high and stuff either way. Don’t even try to deny it so why would you want to be able to do another stupid thing like lowering the drinking age so you can get high and drunk and kill more people and not only people but your mind, you may not realize it but once the body has lost the brain cells you have to do many different brain exercises to gain even some relativity of what it was you lost and what are you going to do when you kill a certain cell that makes it nearly impossible to gain any more back ?"
Okay, in my first post, i said the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Now, i don't. That definitely wouldn't help teen drunk driving accidents. I think that we should lower the drinking age to 14, and make the driving age 17. That would give kids a few years to get used to drinking, get the major drinking out of their system, and learn to haandle the responsibilities drinking comes with. In some places in Mexico, you only have to be taller than the bar to get a drink. And they don't have problems with drunk driving accidents like we do.
I still think that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because no matter the drinking age people under the age of 18 are still able to get alcohol one way or another but some people that didnt want it to be lowered had some good reasons that i would agree with
I still believe that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. The automobile accident statistics were taken like 20 years ago, and aren't credible now. Times have changed.
oops. again, my names leif eng.
I still belive the drinking age should be lowered to 18. However, my opinion has been swayed a little after reading my classmates comments. Noelle makes a great point by saying that lowering the drinking age might not be beneficial because they tried that in 1988 and the death rate increased so much that they had to raise it back up to 21. This makes me second guess my opinion but im sticking with my first instict. The reason is a lot has changed in 20 years and the outcome might be different in todays time.
i still definately think that the drinking age should be 21. People are saying that in 20 years things are alot different which is true, but there are still many alcohol related accidents with the age being 21, so if it were to change to 18, it would multiply. 20 years ago there was normally 1 car per household to use. This has definately amplified in the past 20 years so there are many more cars on the road these days, and cars are now able to go alot faster than they could 20 years ago. Another thing is that if there are 18, 19, and 20 year olds who can legally drink along with everyone 21 and over, this will just increase the number of drunk drivers causing the alcohol related accidents to skyrocket!
My opinion that the drinking age should be lowered o 18 is still the same. People have made many good points about the number of alcohol related accidents increasing, but I think that is only because people would take advantage of their new freedom. After a couple years, when people got used to the law, the rate would decrease.
For example, in some countries in Europe, the drinking age is as low as 16, and they don't have nearly as many problems as the US does because they are used to the responsibility of being able to drink, and grew up with it being okay to drink.
I still believe the drinking age should stay at twentyone. Sure at the age of 18 we have alot more freedom than we did when we were 17and your know known as an "adult". So just because your now known as an adult you think you can start drinking, you think your more mature and can handle it. But reality is you really can't. You haven't had enough adult enviornmental experiences. You've just came out of a teen enviornment; "high school". To everyone who thinks the drinking age should be changed to 18, rethink your answers. Think of all the responsibilites and concequences that come with consuming alcohal.
-Ericka Armstrong.
I dissagree with the statement. Personally, I think the drinking age should stay at 21 because despite what adults may believe about teens, it is very easy to aqcuire alchohal. Haveing the drinking age lowered is not going to make people want to stop and like the facts stated, the death rates went up in being under the influence with a lowered age level. I don't think that if the drinking age was lowered it would dymystify drinking for underage people. Also, just because you can go into the military when your 18, doesn't mean you should have the right to drink. Being able to go into the military and being able to drink are totally different. However, both do take alot of responsibility.
do we have to write alot?
I think this is good.
okay.
skyelar dunn
My opinion hasnt changed i still think that the drinking age should stay at 21 to protect the person and the people that person would affect if they were able to drink at 18
-Nathan Paddeck
my opinion has changed and i now think that the drinking age should stay the same because if you could get alcohol at the age of 18 kids could come to school with alcohol and drink throughout the day if they wanted and they couldnt get in trouble for doing it and kids that are younger could get it a lot easier then if the age was 21.
I still think that the drinking age should be lowered to 14, because by the time we are old enough to drive we will be used to alcohol and the responsibilities that come with it, lowering the number of drunk driving accidents.
now that i've thought it over, i do think that the drinking age should stay at 21 because the higher the age the harder it is for younger kids to get ahold of alcohol. and if the age was lowered then kids who are 18 and are still in highschool could be drunk on campus which isn't very good.
2
After reading other posts, I still stay with my first opinion in that the drinking age shouls stay where it is. I don't even understand why people would think it could "help" because obviously if death rates went up from drunk driveing in one state, it will domino to others. Do people try and change laws like that just for controversy? Because 21 seems like a much safer age to legally start drinking then 18. If it was brought down to 18, you would potentially start seeing kids drinking before and after school, and it would be much easier to get because what kid doesn't know an 18 year old?
My opinion remains the same and I still believe the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Many of my classmates mentioned that if the legal drinking age was lowered it would be a lot easier to obtain alcohol and thus resulting in even younger aged drinkers. I disagree becuase i believe it is just as easy to obatin alcohol no matter your age. This is because the majority of teens' parents drink or have older siblings who drink and can easily acess their alcohol.
I think that they should not lower
I agree with Mark F. about how they should raise the price on alchohol. It would be another step on making it a little harder to get ahold of it. But still in some cases parents have it laying around the house so its still kind of easy to get ahold of it.
I still firmly believe that the drinking age should remain 21.As i said earlier, if it was lowered to 18, it would be much easier to get a hold of for younger people. A lot of seniors are 18, and so anyone who knew them well would be able to find a way to get alcohol through them. While people who are 21, arent in high school anymore, so it would be harder to get a hold of. Over all, at the age of 21, you are more responsible then you are at 18. Another issue with changing the law to 18 is that they have only had around 2 years of driving experience while at 21, they have had 5, so odds are that the 21 year olds are more aware and have more experience making it somewhat better:)
Although I realise that just because a person is 18 it doesn't mean they are responsible, I still think they should be given a chance. The fact that it would be much easier for teens to gain access to alcohol is a problem, but although their would be some problems that would arrise with lowering the drinking age, it wold also solve some major problems.
After reading everyones comments, and already writeing two opinion comments before this, my opinion remains un-swayed. I really think that they should not lower the drinking age and it should stay where it is. Personally, I think it's just safer for everyone.
now i really dont have an opinoon either way because both sides have great arguements. im not that passionate on my answer but if i had to lean one way or another i would lean toward keeping it at 21.
-Christian Freed-
After reading through the comments, I understand why people think it should be lowered but I strongly disagree. Just because your old enough, responsible enough to drive, it doesn't mean your ready to drink. Even adults have a hard time with alcohol. Being old enough to go to war and drive is completely different from being able to derink. I mean really, do we want drunk teenage soldiers running around?
{COURTNEY WYMER}
OH! Yeah Sorry! That Was Me. Sorry.
i would have to agree with christian now that i read the comments i lean more toards keeping the age at 21. more safe
i also believe that the drinking age should stay at 21 because now seeing that its been proven that brains continue to develop until age 21. And alcohol is a known killer of brain cells. studies also have shown that the younger you are when you start to drink the more likely you are to develop an addiction.
in some ways i think that the legal drinking age should be lowered, for example if you can vote, smoke, be put behind the wheel of a car, and can have a gun put in your hands, you should also have the right to drink alcohol. and in another sense i also dont think that it should be lowered for the reason that a 18 year olds brain is not fully developed and can be damaged by alcohol. also the earlier a person starts drinking alcohol the more likely they are to have an addiction later in life. these are all of the reasons i am both for and against lowering the legal drinking age.
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