Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21?

• “Yes”

  

  “Legal Age 21 Forces Drinking Behind Closed Doors”

• “Objection”

  

  “Lowering the Drinking Age Won’t Make Teens Responsible Consumers.”
  

Lowering the Drinking Age Won’t Make Teens Responsible Consumers.

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Lowing the drinking age is not going to suddenly turn young people into responsible consumers who drink only supervised by adult authority figures. Youth drink with the goal to get drunk. And they do so “behind closed doors” only because adults are willing to look the other way. Legalizing alcohol will not cause teens to drink responsibly. The fact is alcohol is the No. 1 youth drug problem in America and more young people die from alcohol-related causes than from all other illicit drugs combined.

Evidence

Text

Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility.

National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2004). Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking, Richard J. Bonnie and Mary Ellen O’Connell, Editors. Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Next Argument

"Yes" Choose Responsibility

• You are an Adult at 18
  5
• Legal Age 21 Forces Drinking Behind Closed Doors
  5
• Binge Drinking Puts Lives at Risk Off the Highways
  8
• Legal Age 21 Marginalizes Parents
  3
• Legal Age 21 Erodes Respect for Law
  5
• America is Out of Step with Most of the Rest of the World
  4
• History Speaks for Itself: Prohibition Doesn't Work
  5

"No" GHSA

• The Law Saves Lives
  4
• The Teen Brain is Not Fully Developed
  1
• History Speaks for Itself
  2

"No" PIRE

• Minimum Drinking Age Laws have Proven Their Effectiveness
  4
• Alcohol and Fighting for Your Country do Not Mix
  6
• Many Bars Over-Serve Alcohol
  0
• The European Myth
  2
• Where is the Evidence That This Will Work?
  4

Most Objections

• You are an Adult at 18
  5
• Legal Age 21 Forces Drinking Behind Closed Doors
  5
• Binge Drinking Puts Lives at Risk Off the Highways
  8
• Legal Age 21 Marginalizes Parents
  3
• Legal Age 21 Erodes Respect for Law
  5
• Minimum Drinking Age Laws have Proven Their Effectiveness
  4
• Alcohol and Fighting for Your Country do Not Mix
  6
• Where is the Evidence That This Will Work?
  4
• The Teen Brain is Not Fully Developed
  1
• America is Out of Step with Most of the Rest of the World
  4
• History Speaks for Itself: Prohibition Doesn't Work
  5

Drinking Age Before 21?

• Yes
• No

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