Drinking Age At 21 Research Paper

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Nick Pierce Mrs. Reasons English 451-6 9 December 2010 21 to Spill Twenty-one is that privileged age that the majority of today’s youth want to be. It is the minimum legal age in which a person can buy alcohol. However, most of society in general cannot seem to wait that long. That goes especially for those attending college and most of high school. This country would be far more productive if alcohol is not present to kids under the age of twenty-one. Having the legal drinking age lowered to eighteen creates more conflicts than benefits, so it is a more intelligent decision to leave the age at twenty-one. Underage drinking can be defined as someone under the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA), which is twenty-one in the US. Along with…show more content…
That is not to mention the number of crimes/deaths that are prevented because the age is so high. Alcohol-related incidents are still the number one cause of death among teenagers. 38% are caused by car accidents, 32% are caused by homicides, and 6% are the result of suicides (Schwartz 4). Research also states that the brain doesn’t fully develop until the mid-twenty’s. The lobes in the brain that go through the most development are the frontal lobes, which are essential for decision making, impulse control, and language (4). This is a perfect, logical explanation why teenagers are more prone to riskier behavior, criminal activity, and sexual intercourse. All are tendencies only aggravated by…show more content…
A social host law is a law that makes anyone who is the age of majority (twenty-one in this case) to be responsible for anyone under the MLDA, and the consequences may result in jail time. Thirty-five states have some form of “civil liability laws” that make adults responsible for anyone under the legal drinking age that consume alcohol under their supervision/responsibility (Schwartz 1). Like a social host law, a civil liability law does not result in jail time. Instead of jail, those accused of violating the law are normally faced with hefty civil suits. Suzanne Bass, a Florida attorney who has handled these types of law suits in the past, said, “Homeowners and parents are at risk because they don’t appreciate what their kids are doing in the back yard” (1). Teens shouldn’t be using alcohol in the first place, but adults who are responsible for them should not condone them to doing it either. The proposal for a social host law in every state is being pushed for in
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