Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21?

Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21?

Do you remember your first taste of alcohol? How old were you? Twenty-one? All 50 states currently demand that their citizens reach age 21 before they can legally drink. But there's a growing movement that says mandatory minimum laws may do more harm than good. When determining the right date when a young person can take one of their final steps towards personal responsibility and freedom, what's the right answer?

Next question in Society

  • “Yes”
  • “Objection”
GHSA

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

Governors Highway Safety Association

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

IcotextText
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.
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  • GHSA
    The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of states, territories, the District of... More

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