Breaking The Drinking Age Essay

Rethinking the Legal Drinking Age At age 18, you can vote, get married, enlist in the military, and drive. You can do all of those, but can't take a sip of alcohol? The drinking age has not stopped many teens from drinking, but instead has increased the risk of drinking. Nowadays, teens are drinking without a parent knowing and sneaking around just to drink. The drinking age should be lowered to 18. In Michigan, the legal drinking age started on December 22, 1978 (Coleman.) The legal drinking age doesn't stop teens from drinking. We are in the 21st century, and many things have changed since 1978. The majority of the students in college are under the age of 21, and drinking at parties is a big part of college life. It would be harder to find …show more content…
Consuming alcohol at a young age causes teens to make bad decisions. Statistics by the Michigan State Police, show the age group 21-24 has 1,968 crashes compared to the age group 16-20 with 1,248 crashes. This evidence shows that there are still a lot of underage drivers breaking the drinking law. This means the underage drinking law isn't working that well. The NIAA also shows that in 2022, more than a fourth of 12-20-year-olds have drunk alcohol before (34.2%). Despite knowing that alcohol is bad for the teen body, underage drinking will not stop. Teens don't care about the long-term consequences, they just want to feel the buzz. If we keep the drinking age at 21, it won't change how teens are finding ways to get ahold of alcohol. An example of a similar situation is vape. There are plenty of studies that show vaping is bad for our health, but that’s not stopping people from doing it. The same thing goes for drinking. If we lowered the drinking age, the sensation of drinking would be less since they would already be able to drink. They also wouldn't have to hide it from adults since they wouldn't be breaking the

Show More