Raising The Drinking Age To 21 Persuasive Essay

Words: 860
Pages: 4

In 1984 the government was given a choice. Raise the drinking age to 21 or lose 10% of their national highway funding. They choose to keep the highway funding. What they didn’t realize was what the effect of raising the drinking age to 21 would do. Although they may have decreased the odds of alcohol related vehicle deaths, it hasn’t done anything to discourage underage drinking, in fact, underage drinking has gone up. With young people who are considered “adults“ at the age of 18 now having to wait an additional three years to buy and consume alcohol, it has resulted in what is being called and underground community of underage binge drinkers. This is part of the reason why the drinking age should be returned to 18. When President Reagan passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, it made sure to punish any state that didn’t agree with it, to a loss of highway funding. Although the loss was only 5% and then later increased to 10%, it was still enough for the states to comply. (Palicz) This wasn’t the first time that the country had tried to put a ban on possessing alcohol. In 1919, …show more content…
More than 140 colleges from across the nation have grouped together in an effort to lower the drinking age back down to 18. The college Presidents and Chancellors are the ones behind the initiative. They initiative believes that if they’re students are old enough and “…deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military…” they don’t understand why ,”…they are not mature enough to have a beer.”
Not only does this allow the students to drink in a more responsible way, but it is saving the colleges thousands of dollars every year. The amount of resources the colleges have to spend on security and RA’s is significant enough without them having to put extra money into alcohol